Ardent Spirits - by Reynolds Price (Paperback)

About the Book

Award-winning novelist Price provides a vivid portrait of his life in the mid-1950s, leading up to the publication of his brilliant first novel, "A Long and Happy Life," which details his time as a Rhodes scholar, writer, and teacher. Includes photos of the author throughout.

Book Synopsis

Award-winning novelist Reynolds Price provides "the best of his winning lot" (Dwight Garner, The New York Times) of memoirs--a vivid portrait of his life in the mid-1950s leading up to the publication of his brilliant first novel A Long and Happy Life.

After two earlier autobiographical works--Clear Pictures and A Whole New Life--acclaimed writer Reynolds Price offers a full account of his life from the mid-1950s to the publication of his first novel in 1962.

Oxford University and Britain--which had scarcely recovered from the severe demands of World War II--were places of enormous vitality for Price, both academic and personal. From spotting J. R. R. Tolkien on the street in Oxford to intimate dinners with W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender, young Price was welcomed into the company of the most respected intellectual and artistic circles. Fully entrenched in the culture of his era, Price unfailingly makes clear the connections between his experience and the great tradition of world literature.

In lucid and frequently witty prose, Price offers full access to six years in the early adulthood of a rich life--"a gallery of portraits and sexual discovery" (The Weekly Standard ) and part of the great train of human accomplishment in which Price so ardently believed.

Review Quotes

"Ardent Spirits is Mr. Price's third memoir [and] it is the best of this winning lot... Price's warmth, vigor and good humor consistently shine through."--Dwight Garner, New York Times

"His beautiful books, his tremendous productivity, his spirituality and cheerfulness, his abiding friendships--all these generous traits and dynamic accomplishments have characterized Reynolds Price.... Ardent Spirits is ... effervescent."--Edmund White, The New York Review of Books

"The most compelling book he's published since Kate Vaiden in 1986. Price has always been one of our finest storytellers, but in Ardent Spirits he rises to new heights, delivering a compelling account of a profoundly exciting period in a young man's life."--Charlotte Observer

About the Author

Reynolds Price (1933-2011) was a former Rhodes Scholar and taught at Duke beginning in 1958 and was the James B. Duke Professor of English. His first novel, A Long and Happy Life, was published in 1962 and won the William Faulkner Award. His sixth novel, Kate Vaiden, was published in 1986 and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. The author of more than three dozen books, Price was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages.