Richard Price (writer)

Infobox Writer


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name = Richard Price
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birthdate = birth date and age|1949|10|12
birthplace = The Bronx, New York City, United States
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occupation = Novelist, screenwriter, journalist
nationality = American
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Richard Price (born October 12, 1949 in the Bronx, New York) is an American novelist and screenwriter.

Life

A self-described "middle class Jewish kid", [Richard Price, "The Fonzie of Literature", in "The New York Times Book Review", October 25, 1981] Price grew up in a housing project in the northeast Bronx, and lives in New York City with his family.

Price graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, and obtained a BA from Cornell University and an MFA from Columbia. He also did graduate work at Stanford. He has taught writing at Columbia, Yale, and New York University. He was one of the first people interviewed on the NPR show Fresh Air when it went national in 1987. In 1999, he received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.

Novelist and screenwriter

Price's novels explore late 20th century urban America in a gritty, realistic manner that has brought him considerable literary acclaim. Several of his novels are set in a fictional northern New Jersey city called Dempsy. In his review of "Lush Life" (2008), Walter Kirn compared Price to Raymond Chandler and Saul Bellow. [Kirn, Walter, " [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/books/review/Kirn-t.html Review of Lush Life,] " New York Times Book Review, March 16, 2008.]

The first of Price's 8 novels is "The Wanderers" (1974), a coming-of-age story set in the Bronx in 1962, written when Price was 24 years old. It was adapted into a movie in 1979 by director Philip Kaufman.

"Clockers" (1992) was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. It has been praised for its humor, suspense, dialogue and characterizations. In 1995, it was made into a movie directed by Spike Lee; they share writing credits for the screenplay.

He has written numerous screenplays, of which the best known are "The Color of Money" (1986) for which he was nominated for an Oscar, "Life Lessons" (the Martin Scorsese segment of "New York Stories") (1989), "Sea of Love" (1989), "Mad Dog and Glory" (1992), "Ransom" (1996), "Shaft" (2000). He also wrote for the HBO series "The Wire". He is often cast in a cameo role in the films he writes.

Price has published articles in the "The New York Times, Esquire Magazine, The New Yorker, Village Voice, Rolling Stone", and other publications.

Novels by Price

*1974. "The Wanderers"
*1976. "Bloodbrothers"
*1978. "Ladies' Man"
*1983. "The Breaks"
*1992. "Clockers"
*1998. "Freedomland"
*2003. "Samaritan"
*2008. "Lush Life"

See also

*List of Cornell University alumni

References

External links

*imdb name|name=Richard Price|id=0697115
* [http://www.popentertainment.com/price.htm Richard Price interview.]
* [http://www.literaryawards.info/en/richard_price.html Richard Price's bibliography]
* [http://www.literaryawards.info/en/richard_price_films.html Richard Price's filmography]
*Michael Chabon, " [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21314 In Priceland,] " "The New York Review of Books", May 1, 2008. A review of "Lush Life" and of Price's career.