(Edward) Reynolds Price was born in Macon, North Carolina, on 1 February 1933, the son of William Solomon and Elizabeth Rodwell Price. Both in his work and his life, he has rarely strayed far from the place of his birth. Price attended nearby Duke University (1951-1955), where he received his B.A. and was chosen a Rhodes scholar. He attended Merton College, Oxford, from which he received his B. Litt. in 1958. In that year, Price returned to Duke where he joined the English faculty. He has, with a number of interruptions to take temporary teaching posts (writer-in-residence, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1965; writer-in-residence, University of Kansas, 1969; writer-in-residence, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 1971; Glasgow Professor, Washington and Lee University, 1971; faculty member, Salsburg Seminar, Salsburg, Austria, 1976), remained on the Duke faculty and in 1977 was named James B. Duke Professor of English.

A number of Price's short stories--"One Sunday in Late...