The Wider Place

by Eugenia Price

Where God offers freedom from anything that limits our growth.

250 pages, Hardback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Eugenia 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.

Reviews

[Lynne Burkholder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grace, freedom that Jesus offers, legalism found in spiritual places, are all issues that Eugenia handles almost on every page of this book. This woman has the essence of Christianity and the ability to express it in such a way that makes you just want to raise your hands while saying "Amen to that sister!"

I am not fond of Christian books but what I have noted is the books that really speak to me are ones written between the mid fifties to late seventies. I have had this book for a while and really do not know how I obtained it. I was about to bring it to Goodwill or ReUzit and thought again based on the title. "It might have something to do with grace, better keep it." Sure enough it did! And now it ranks as one of my favorites.

[Richard Keenam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a man, who considers this book, for me, the most important book I have ever read. Due to the way I was raised, by my insecure Father, who had been dominated by everyone he had ever known, when he decided he could no longer deal with his very strong son eventually also dominating him, at the age of seven, he set up a way for him, in front of everyone in the family, to savagely end what I had always considered an excellent bonding with him. He had already had everything in place, for his holding one of my arms while beating my bare legs with a leather belt of mine, which seemed to last forever, then followed with his breaking all his conversation between us, except when he frequently tried ways to dominate or trying to find fault with everything I ever did. I became too emotionally disturbed to normally mature, but finding The Wider Place brought me into
my finding my pathway, into "Learning How to Think Like a Man.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eugenia Price never fails to make me think in a way that improves my perspectives and enlarges my world.

[Bitsy]

1966