I'm extremely fond of this photo of my friend, the novelist Charles F. Price. You may find it on his attractive, informative website, charlesfprice.com, and much of the credit for that site goes to Britt Kaufmann, the designer, and to Charles, of course. On it you will find an interview with Britt, excerpts, dustjacket blurbs, and some of Charles's drawings.
Charles also looks rather fine from the front, too, as you can see from this photo.
Nor the Battle to the Strong is a novel that has not received the notice and acclaim it deserves, so this Christmas season, put it on your shopping list. It's not a light-weight novel. It's heavy with history, character, and a profound appreciation of what we must not forget about what has made our country what we so glibly call, "the land of the free." The brave? Yes, this novel will give you insight into that, as well. I can also tell you that NC's perhaps most famous novelist/poet has called this one of the best novels he's read in a long time. Would this be a novel likely to be made into a movie with award-winning characters? I wish it would, but given the state of U.S. literary taste these days, I doubt it. And yet, the quality of prose is akin to that in COLD MOUNTAIN. The characters just as riveting.
On my July 4 post (kathrynstriplingbyer.blogspot.com) I said: "We've reason enough to celebrate the 4th of July each year, but this year we have another reason as well, if we love literature, history, and our country. Today is the official publication date of Charles Price's new novel about the American Revolution in the South, Nor the Battle to the Strong. Today of all days, we should remember this quote from Thomas Jefferson: 'If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Much has been written lately about our country's ignorance of its own history. Mr. Jefferson would applaud Charles's book and urge every citizen to read it.
You can go to the archive for Writers and Books on the ncarts.org site and be taken to an excerpt from the book, as well as an interview with Charles by the beautiful and talented Britt Kaufmann. Both have websites, by the way, so give them a google!
My brother, whose name is also Charles, years ago proclaimed Charles Price's book, Freedom's Altar, one of the best he'd ever read. He commented that Price is a master story-teller. My brother took his degrees in American History, by the way, so he knows what he's talking about. "
An aside: I have a copy of Price's book wrapped and ready for my brother.
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