Queer Places:
University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PA
4411 W Cornwallis Rd, Durham, NC 27705
Edward Reynolds Price (February 1, 1933 – January 20, 2011) was an American poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist and James B. Duke Professor of English at Duke University. Apart from English literature, Price had a lifelong interest in Biblical scholarship. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.[1] Price lived alone, by choice, for all of his adult life and was openly homosexual.[11] In 1957 he had an affair with the famous British poet
Stephen Spender, visiting the Spender family home for Christmas.[12]
Price was born Edward Reynolds Price in Macon, North Carolina, on February 1, 1933, the first of two sons of William Solomon and Elizabeth Price. Both he and his mother narrowly survived an extremely taxing childbirth; family legend states that during these circumstances, Will Price prayed and made a promise to God that if his wife and son survived, he would quit drinking alcohol.[2] Price's family, struggling under the economic climate of the Great Depression, resided in the rural North Carolina towns of Macon, Henderson, Warrenton, Roxboro, and Asheboro throughout his childhood. Rather than joining other boys his age in sports and outdoor activities, Price developed a childhood fondness for the arts – reading, writing, painting, and opera included.[2] He attended Broughton High School in Raleigh, North Carolina and eventually received a full scholarship to Duke University, where he continued writing, served as the editor of Duke's literary magazine, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa his junior year and graduated summa cum laude. After graduating in 1955, Price received a Rhodes Scholarship and attended Merton College, Oxford.[3] While at Oxford, Price formed important friendships with the poet
W. H. Auden and the biographer Lord
David Cecil.[1] He devoted a significant portion of his literary studies, as well as his thesis, to English poet John Milton.[2] Upon graduation with a B.Litt. in 1958, Price secured a position in the Duke University English department, where he stayed for the rest of his career, often teaching courses on Milton, creative writing, and the Gospels.[1]
In the spring of 1984, a life-altering medical event occurred when Price reported difficulty walking and underwent testing at Duke University Hospital. James Schiff describes, "He soon learned of a 'pencil-thick and gray-colored' tumor, ten inches long and cancerous, which was 'intricately braided in the core of [his] spinal cord'."[2] Although surgery and radiation managed to remove the tumor from his spine, Price became a paraplegic and required a wheelchair for the rest of his life. After enduring these initial years, Price emerged from this trying period "a more patient and watchful person and a dramatically more prolific writer."[2] He still bore, however, "colossal, incessant pain", as he described.[4] He wrote about his experience as a cancer survivor in his memoir A Whole New Life. Regarding his life after this tragedy, Price explains, "I'd have to say that, despite an enjoyable fifty-year start, these recent years since full catastrophe have gone still better. They've brought more in and sent more out – more love and care, more knowledge and patience, more work in less time."[5]
In 1987, Duke University gave Price its highest honor when it awarded him the University Medal for Distinguished Meritorious Service.[1]
Price died at the age of 77 on January 20, 2011, as a result of complications from a heart attack.[6]
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