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Price’s first novel, A Long and Happy Life (1962), introduced his memorable young
heroine, the naive, spirited Rosacoke Mustian, who loves, becomes pregnant by, and
weds an indifferent young man. A younger Rosacoke appeared in Price’s short-story
collection The Names and Faces of Heroes (1963), and in the novel A Generous
Man (1966) her brother Milo experiences his sexual awakening while searching the
backwoods for an intellectually disabled brother, a dog, and an escaped python. The
third volume in the trilogy, Good Hearts (1988), resumes the story of Rosacoke in
her middle age. Price’s other novels include Love and Work (1968); The Surface of the
Earth (1975); The Source of Light (1981); Kate Vaiden (1986), the orphaned heroine of
which was based on the author’s own mother; and The Tongues of Angels (1990). He
also wrote poetry, plays, translations from the Bible, and essays.

While writing Kate Vaiden, Price became paraplegic, the aftermath of cancer of the
spine. Nevertheless, he continued to teach and write. His memoirs include Clear
Pictures (1989), about growing up in North Carolina, and A Whole New Life (1994),
which recounts his illness.