Our Prince of Scribes - by Nicole Seitz & Jonathan Haupt (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

New York Times best-selling writer Pat Conroy (1945-2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year writing life. In sharing their stories of Conroy, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on twentieth- and twenty-first-century literary life in and well beyond the American South.

Conroy's was a messy fellowship of people from all walks of life. His relationships were complicated, and people and places he thought he'd left behind often circled back to him at crucial moments. The pantheon of contributors includes Pulitzer Prize winners Rick Bragg and Kathleen Parker; Grammy winners Barbra Streisand and Janis Ian; Lillian Smith Award winners Anthony Grooms and Mary Hood; National Book Award winner Nikky Finney; James Beard Foundation Award winners Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart; a corps of New York Times best-selling authors, including Ron Rash, Sandra Brown, and Mary Alice Monroe; Conroy biographers Katherine Clark and Catherine Seltzer; longtime Conroy friends Bernie Schein, Cliff Graubart, John Warley, and Walter Edgar; Pat's students Sallie Ann Robinson and Valerie Sayers; members of the Conroy family; and many more.

Each author in this collection shares a slightly different view of Conroy. Through their voices, a vibrant, multifaceted portrait of him comes to life and sheds new light on the writer and the man. Loosely following Conroy's own chronology, the essays in Our Prince of Scribes wind through his river of a story, stopping at important ports of call. Cities he called home and longed to visit, along with each book he birthed, become characters that are as equally important as the people he touched and loved along the way.

Review Quotes

A compelling read that illuminates the man behind the myth, a writer's writer, a fantastic storyteller, a flawed genius, and an exceptionally loyal friend.-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Conroy's expansive sensibility proved seductive to those who loved him. His friends and acquaintances tend to evoke him with a chorus of superlatives, sometimes cloyingly so. It's what gives Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy the frequently breathless tone of a fan magazine.--Danny Heitman "The Wall Street Journal"

In reading this collection, I felt Pat Conroy come back to life--his heroism, his kindness, his unparalleled generosity, his vulnerability, his raunchy, wicked humor, his love for family and the low country.--Dannye Romine Powell "author and book editor for the Charlotte Observer"

Pat Conroy could write with an elegance that made most writers either envious or hopeless, yet was generous and encouraging, a champion. If a man can live in memory, it is Pat Conroy.--Rick Bragg "Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All Over but the Shoutin', Ava's Man, and The Prince of Frogtown."

Pat Conroy was a force for good in our world. With courage and grace, he brought the gifts of the devastating beauty of his writing and his transcendent vision of the human heart to the lives of the readers he touched and the writers he inspired.--Barbra Streisand "from the foreword to Our Prince of Scribes"

What could be better than so many voices coming together to celebrate Pat Conroy? This book is a testament to the enormous hold he had on our hearts and minds.--Ann Patchett "New York Times best-selling author of Bel Canto and Commonwealth"

About the Author

Nicole Seitz (Editor)
NICOLE SEITZ is the author of seven novels, including, most recently, The Cage-Maker and Beyond Molasses Creek. She lives in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Jonathan Haupt (Editor)
JONATHAN HAUPT is the executive director of the Pat Conroy Literary Center and the founding director of the annual Pat Conroy Literary Festival in Beaufort, South Carolina.