Price - Midstream: an unfinished memoir

IAN HOLLJES

REYNOLDS PRICE was born in Macon, North Carolina in 1933. Educated in the public schools of his native state, he earned an A.B. summa cum laude from Duke University. In 1955 he traveled as a Rhodes Scholar to Merton College, Oxford University to study English literature. After three years and the B.Litt. degree, he returned to Duke, wherefor over fifty yearshe continued teaching as the James B. Duke Professor of English.

With his novel A Long and Happy Life which won the William Faulkner Award in 1962 and has been newly reissued by Scribner in a fiftieth-anniversary editionhe began a career that resulted in thirty-eight subsequent volumes of fiction, poetry, plays, essays, memoirs, and translations. His novels include Kate Vaiden, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1986. He was a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and his work has been translated into seventeen languages. Price died on January 20, 2011.

MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
SimonandSchuster.com
THE SOURCE FOR READING GROUPS

JACKET DESIGN BY REX BONOMELLI

JACKET PHOTOGRAPH BY WALLACE KAUFMAN

COPYRIGHT 2012 SIMON & SCHUSTER

Praise for Midstream

Warm, in-depth... blow-by-blow accounts of life in the literary fast lane... The charm of Midstream is how the author takes us so fully into his confidence.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Extravagantly talented.

Chicago Tribune

A witty and revealing peek into Prices life at a turning point in his prolific career.... More than a mere fragment, this rewarding posthumous memoir covers a crucial period in the life of Reynolds Price.

Shelf Awareness

His beautiful books, his tremendous productivity, his spirituality and cheerfulness, his abiding friendshipsall these generous traits and dynamic accomplishments have characterized Reynolds Price.

Edmund White, The New York Review of Books

Praise for Reynolds Price

Prices warmth, vigor, and good humor consistently shine through.

Dwight Garner, The New York Times

Reynolds Price was fortunate to have lived the life. The rest of us are fortunate because he has shared it in such a brilliant and readable way.

Jim Lehrer

A man who treats the language with respect and who grants the same to all who appear in this album of his life.

The Washington Post Book World

Thank you for downloading this Scribner eBook.

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Scribner and Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

We hope you enjoyed reading this Scribner eBook.

Join our mailing list and get updates on new releases, deals, bonus content and other great books from Scribner and Simon & Schuster.

C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

BOOKS BY

REYNOLDS PRICE

MIDSTREAM 2012

ARDENT SPIRITS 2009

LETTER TO A GODCHILD 2006

THE GOOD PRIESTS SON 2005

A SERIOUS WAY OF WONDERING 2003

NOBLE NORFLEET 2002

FEASTING THE HEART 2000

A PERFECT FRIEND 2000

LETTER TO A MAN IN THE FIRE 1999

LEARNING A TRADE 1998

ROXANNA SLADE 1998

THE COLLECTED POEMS 1997

THREE GOSPELS 1996

THE PROMISE OF REST 1995

A WHOLE NEW LIFE 1994

THE COLLECTED STORIES 1993

FULL MOON 1993

BLUE CALHOUN 1992

THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE 1991

NEW MUSIC 1990

THE USE OF FIRE 1990

THE TONGUES OF ANGELS 1990

CLEAR PICTURES 1989

GOOD HEARTS 1988

A COMMON ROOM 1987

THE LAWS OF ICE 1986

KATE VAIDEN 1986

PRIVATE CONTENTMENT 1984

VITAL PROVISIONS 1982

THE SOURCE OF LIGHT 1981

A PALPABLE GOD 1978

EARLY DARK 1977

THE SURFACE OF EARTH 1975

THINGS THEMSELVES 1972

PERMANENT ERRORS 1970

LOVE AND WORK 1968

A GENEROUS MAN 1966

THE NAMES AND FACES OF HEROES 1963

A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE 1962

SCRIBNER

A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10020

www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2012 by William Price

Foreword copyright 2012 by Anne Tyler

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information, address Scribner Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Scribner hardcover edition May 2012

SCRIBNER and design are registered trademarks of The Gale Group, Inc., used under license by Simon & Schuster, Inc., the publisher of this work.

The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.

ISBN 978-1-4391-8349-6

ISBN 978-1-4391-8355-7 (ebook)

PHOTO CREDITS

pp. : Photograph of American composer Samuel Barber Bettmann/Corbis

I T WAS THE FALL of 1958, and I was registering for freshman English in the Duke University gymnasium. But the instructor wasnt sure that she could fit me into her class. She sat frowning down at my card till the man sitting next to her said, Whats the problem? and reached over to take it from her. He was young and distinctly exotic-looking, at least to a North Carolina girl who had never been anywhere. His hair was a deep, dense black, and one of his curls had sprung away from the rest to dangle over his forehead.

Oh, well, he said after a moment, Ill take her.

And that is how I met the teacher of my life.

My class was the first that Reynolds Price ever taught, but you never would have guessed it. From day one he was a natural: easygoing, humorous, relaxed. He had a way of implying that we were all in this togetherthat if a student came up with a striking insight, it was occasion for every last one of us to rejoice. Youre good at this, arent you? he said once to a girl who had offered a particularly astute interpretation of a poem. I still remember the surprise and dawning pleasure that showed in her face, and Ill bet she remembers, too.

He wasnt spendthrift with his praise, though. For those of us who came from small-town high schools, where we were routinely made much of, there was something shocking and yet oddly exhilarating in his forthright You went wrong, here. No patronizing pats on the head from Reynolds! At the end of my freshman year I wrote a story about a poverty-stricken black woman lying in a hospital bed; she looked at her hands on top of the sheet and they reminded her of an India-ink drawing. That would not happen, Reynolds said firmly. A thing like an India-ink drawing wouldnt cross that womans mind. He was right, of course. I recognized it with a feeling something like relief. You could say that it was a matter of respect: he took us seriously enough to tell us the truth.

Most important, at least when it came to the composition part of the class, was his gift for inspiration. He was a budding writer, as it turned out. (A writer! We were in awe.) His short stories were just beginning to be published, and sometimes he read us one aloud, sitting tailor-fashion on top of his desk and rolling out each word in his thunderously vibrant voice. All at once, we wanted to write. We could barely sit still in our chairs; we wanted to rush back to our rooms that very minute and create something as mesmerizing and seemingly effortless as what he was reading to us.