A strong quiet voice gone silent

We learned today of the death of writer and poet Reynolds Price. Chris Robinson, co-host of Readers & Writers on the Air, spent an hour with Price a few years ago when he was a guest on the show. Here’s the link to that program and here is a final tribute from Chris:

Reynolds Price died yesterday, January 20^th, in Durham, North Carolina. He was 77.  Price was a prolific and gifted writer of novels, short stories, poems and memoirs. He was also a powerful advocate for the rights of the disabled. In 1984, Price was diagnosed with a form of spinal cancer. He was rendered paraplegic by the course of radiation therapy he underwent to kill the tumor he called “the gray eel.” Despite enormous pain, 1984 also marked the beginning of the most fertile period in Price’s literary life. He wrote three volumes of memoir that came from the “cascade of memories” released by hypnosis therapy designed to help him cope with pain. He also wrote his novel, Kate Vaiden, which won the National Book Critics Circle Prize.

Reynolds Price joined us on “Readers and Writers on the Air,” on October 5, 2006 as part of our series on Disabilities and Literature.  It was a moving event for me personally. Price was the writer my wife turned to as she recovered from a serious accident. His words, memories and stories gave her strength as she endured pain and worked to regain mobility. When I related this to Price on the air, he invited me to enter into correspondence with him.  In his notes he told me how much strength he derived from readers like my wife.

The interview with Reynolds Price is in our archive, and it would be an apt tribute to great writer and wonderful human being to tune in and hear the interview again. Be warned, however. Reynolds Price loved to remind us that the line between being disabled and enabled is a precarious one. We are all, in the end, only temporarily enabled.

–Chris Robinson

And here’s a link to the NPR story on the passing of Reynolds Price.

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