Civil War Books Released in Paperback Edition

"The Cock's Spur" and "Freedom's Altar," two books by author Charles Price will be published in trade paperback editions in March 2002 by John F. Blair, Publisher.

Burnsville, NC, Writer Quietly Garners Acclaim, Awards

When his first novel was published in 1996, Charles F. Price did the unmentionable for a first-time author-he quit his day job. Returning to the southern Appalachian mountains from which he had departed a lifetime before, he settled into a quiet existence where he could concentrate on writing historical fiction. The result is a critically acclaimed, award-winning trilogy of books: Hiwassee, Freedoms Altar, and The Cocks Spur.
Finding inspiration in his family tree, Price writes of the trials of two families, the Curtises and the Prices. Their saga begins during the Civil War and continues through emancipation and Reconstruction. Modeled after his great-great-grandfather is Oliver Price, a cobbler and friend to the Curtis family, who fought for the Confederacy although he opposed slavery. His is the voice of the poor white seeking a place in the newly emancipated society. Through his eyes, readers see a war-torn community trying to reconstruct itself, and its people learning to live together.    
We often imagine that the region, isolated behind its mountain walls, has always suffered more than its share of woes," says Price. But the truth is that much of the poverty, ignorance, and lawlessness popularly associated with Appalachia actually took root in the dislocations of the Civil War and Reconstruction.
After completing Hiwassee I felt I had not done justice to the deeper and more complex issues of the Civil War, so in Freedoms Altar I decided to address the moral question of slavery," says Price. In particular I wanted to explore what seemed to me a lost opportunity for racial reconciliation in the South immediately after the war. Also, I thought it was important for one of the chief characters of Hiwassee to seek and find redemption for a misdeed which I had seemed to excuse in the first book."
The next generation of Prices and Curtises drives the plot of The Cocks Spur. There is Ves Price, Olivers scoundrel son, whose only sense of duty is to himself. Following a failed career as a moonshiner, Ves turns spy for the local Revenue agent. More sly than smart, he is quickly found out by the self-styled king of local stillers, Webb Darling. There is also Hamby McFee, whose only desire is to escape the life hes marooned in because of his mulatto heritage. Hamby sees a better life beyond the hills, if his fighting cocks only fare well in the ring. Finally, there is Becky Curtis, the fair blossom of the family whose struggle to keep her decaying home together is aging her beyond her years. Tormented by her brothers growing dementia, she is torn between a desire for love and sense of duty.
In 1999, Price joined the pantheon of North Carolina literati when his second novel, Freedoms Altar, received the Sir Walter Raleigh Award, given for the best work of fiction by a North Carolina writer in any given year. Previous winners include another Charles and another Price-Charles Frazier and Reynolds Price. The following year, Independent Publisher magazine honored his third novel, The Cocks Spur, as one of ten outstanding books of the year-and named the author Storyteller of the Year."

Charles Price was born in Clyde, North Carolina. As the son of a Methodist minister, he moved every four years, mostly in the mountains. He earned his bachelors degree at High Point College and his masters in public administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Early in his career, he was a journalist for the Greensboro News & Record, before entering the field of urban planning. He worked for a number of years as a lobbyist and consultant in Washington, D.C.

Title: Freedoms Altar, $15.95, 5 9/16 x 8 5/8, 291 pages
ISBN: 0-89587-262-5
Title: The Cocks Spur, $15.95, 5 9/16 x 8 5/8, 311 pages
ISBN: 0-89587-263-3
Trade paperback editions of both books to be published March 2002