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Inside One Author's Heart: An Autobiography
Inside One Author’s Heart offers a rare glimpse behind the image of a bestselling writer.
Instead of her sweeping tales of the Old South, Ms. Price focuses on herself, her readers, and the special way in which they nourish each other. He tells it straight—with “warts and flaws” and, at all times, an endearing sense of humor about herself and her work.
Here Ms. Price reveals how she creates her haunting novels, and how she brings her characters to life on paper. Here are the heartfelt dialogues between Ms. Price and her readers. Here is the real Eugenia Price, eternally optimistic, yet strangely intimidated by her own success.
The story ranges from Ms. Price’s early years as a writer living in Chicago, to how she fled in the 1960’s for privacy to the sanctuary of St. Simons Island. And this is the most riveting part of her narrative. This deeply private and spiritual woman not only absorbed her new surroundings, she also created a mystique about the island and its history.
Instead of her sweeping tales of the Old South, Ms. Price focuses on herself, her readers, and the special way in which they nourish each other. He tells it straight—with “warts and flaws” and, at all times, an endearing sense of humor about herself and her work.
Here Ms. Price reveals how she creates her haunting novels, and how she brings her characters to life on paper. Here are the heartfelt dialogues between Ms. Price and her readers. Here is the real Eugenia Price, eternally optimistic, yet strangely intimidated by her own success.
The story ranges from Ms. Price’s early years as a writer living in Chicago, to how she fled in the 1960’s for privacy to the sanctuary of St. Simons Island. And this is the most riveting part of her narrative. This deeply private and spiritual woman not only absorbed her new surroundings, she also created a mystique about the island and its history.
- GenresNonfictionMemoir
136 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1992
About the author
Eugenia Price
89 books252 followersEugenia Price was born in Charleston, WV, June 22, 1916, to Walter (a dentist) and Anna Price. At the age of ten, she decided she wanted to be a writer and entered a poem in her school's literary magazine. She was raised as a member of the Methodist Church, but had left the church behind by the time she graduated from high school, at the age of 15, in 1932. She decided to leave writing behind to follow in her father's footsteps and pursue a career in dentistry. She attended Ohio University for three years, declaring herself an atheist during this time. In 1935, she became a student at Northwestern Dental School, the only woman admitted that year. She studied dentistry for two years, but writing continued to draw her. In 1939, she was hired to work on the NBC radio serial In Care of Aggie Horn. She continued as one of the writers for the show until 1942. She left NBC, going to work for the Proctor and Gamble show Joyce Jordan, M.D. from 1944-1946. In 1945 she founded her own television and radio production company, Eugenia Price Productions, developing other serials for Proctor and Gamble.
In 1949 Eugenia Price underwent a profound life change, giving up her college atheism to embrace Christianity. She considered a career change, but accepted a position with WGN Radio as writer, producer, and director for Unshackled, another radio serial. The popularity of the show led her to a lecturing career throughout the United States and Canada for several years.
Price began yet another career in the early 1950s when she was approached by one of the owners of Zondervan publishing. The 1953 publication of Discoveries Made from Living My New Life, a chronicle of her newfound faith and the experiences that led her to it, launched Eugenia Price into a new career as an inspirational writer. Other inspirational books followed, addresses issues of importance to women and children and other self-help concerns and urging readers away from advances in psychology and analysis and toward a life based on Biblical tenants. Many of her inspirational books are still in print, a testimony to the comfort and empathy many readers found in her works.
Eugenia Price gained a much wider audience though when she began publishing historical romances set in the American South. These novels were praised as "compelling sagas that blend personal stories of love and tragedy. . . with the dramatic events of a region's history." Her first historical romance, The Beloved Invader, was inspired her visit to Saint Simons Island, Georgia and based on one of the island's nineteenth-century inhabitants. The Beloved Invader was published in 1965 and followed by two other romances, New Moon Rising (1969) and Lighthouse (1971), to form the St. Simons Trilogy.
Her historical romances made Price a frequent member of the best-seller lists and brought her millions of readers. Although she continued to write and to publish inspirational works, it was her romances that brought her the greatest attention.
Eugenia Price died May 28, 1996, in Brunswick, Georgia of congestive heart failure and is buried in the Christ Church cemetery, Frederica, GA. Many of her books remain in print and have translated into 17 languages, charming readers of all ages and nationalities. Her manuscripts are housed at Boston University.
In 1949 Eugenia Price underwent a profound life change, giving up her college atheism to embrace Christianity. She considered a career change, but accepted a position with WGN Radio as writer, producer, and director for Unshackled, another radio serial. The popularity of the show led her to a lecturing career throughout the United States and Canada for several years.
Price began yet another career in the early 1950s when she was approached by one of the owners of Zondervan publishing. The 1953 publication of Discoveries Made from Living My New Life, a chronicle of her newfound faith and the experiences that led her to it, launched Eugenia Price into a new career as an inspirational writer. Other inspirational books followed, addresses issues of importance to women and children and other self-help concerns and urging readers away from advances in psychology and analysis and toward a life based on Biblical tenants. Many of her inspirational books are still in print, a testimony to the comfort and empathy many readers found in her works.
Eugenia Price gained a much wider audience though when she began publishing historical romances set in the American South. These novels were praised as "compelling sagas that blend personal stories of love and tragedy. . . with the dramatic events of a region's history." Her first historical romance, The Beloved Invader, was inspired her visit to Saint Simons Island, Georgia and based on one of the island's nineteenth-century inhabitants. The Beloved Invader was published in 1965 and followed by two other romances, New Moon Rising (1969) and Lighthouse (1971), to form the St. Simons Trilogy.
Her historical romances made Price a frequent member of the best-seller lists and brought her millions of readers. Although she continued to write and to publish inspirational works, it was her romances that brought her the greatest attention.
Eugenia Price died May 28, 1996, in Brunswick, Georgia of congestive heart failure and is buried in the Christ Church cemetery, Frederica, GA. Many of her books remain in print and have translated into 17 languages, charming readers of all ages and nationalities. Her manuscripts are housed at Boston University.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
November 17, 2012
Eugenia Price wrote 37 books, fiction, and nonfiction ... many of which I loved and enjoyed ... so I enjoyed some of the inside story on how she became a writer and how she writes her books in this autobiography. For me, her need to introduce and thank all the people who had been significant to her career slowed down the story ... as did too much description of events in detail of Eugenia Price Day in Georgia. The book wandered about a bit ... but I still enjoyed the bits and pieces in it about Price's life ... and as a writer, some of her discussion about the way she wrote and researched her books.
October 30, 2026
Short and sweet: Inside One Author's Heart is better than the cover makes it look. What worked: the humor sneaks up on you, and the main duo has real chemistry. What didn't: the villain is a cartoon and the stakes are fuzzy. Recommend for a light, breezy weekend read, skip for anyone wanting a serious, gritty story.
October 25, 2023
Lots of names, but completes the circle of her personal books, on how she wrote historical fiction. She certainly was blessed w/ a devoted support system.
December 27, 2015
From the back cover: "In these pages I have simply tried to share myself. To give you...a deeply personal idea of what this writer's life is like." So from that description, I took it that this would be a memoir of her life and how she got writing, etc. I've read most of her fiction and really enjoyed it so I thought this would be interesting to get some background on how she started. I was wrong in that assumption. Almost all of this short book (115 pages) is her expressing her thanks to her readers and to the network of friends that are her support group and to the folks at the various publishers that she has worked with. The repeated thanks got old quickly for me. For anyone who has read her fiction and read the afterwards of those books, this reads much like any of those. Not what I expected.
November 27, 2007
Eugenia Price is one of my favorite novelists, and this slim volume shows what the life of this particular writer could be like from day to day. Interesting in the extreme.
September 17, 2015
Eugenia Price is one of my favorite authors. Her books made me fall in love with the low country of South Carolina and Georgia and with beautiful St. Simons Island. This little book is a gem.
August 18, 2016
Charming. Ready to give SSI trilogy a try. Correct order for reading: Lighthouse, New Moon Rising, The Beloved Invader.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews