Eugenia Price was an American author, born on June 22, 1916, in Charleston, West Virginia, to Walter, a dentist, and Anna Price. At the age of ten, she decided that she wanted to be a writer and entered a poem in her school's literary magazine. However, she later changed her mind and pursued a career in dentistry, following in her father's footsteps. 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. However, writing continued to draw her, and she eventually left dentistry to become a writer.
Price's writing career began when she was hired to work on the NBC radio serial In Care of Aggie Horn in 1939. She continued as one of the writers for the show until 1942. She later worked 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, 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 her career as an inspirational writer in 1953 with the publication of Discoveries Made from Living My New Life, a chronicle of her newfound faith and the experiences that led her to it. She wrote many other inspirational books, addressing issues of importance to women and children and other self-help concerns, 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.
In the early 1960s, Price gained a much wider audience when she began publishing historical romances set in the American South. These novels, including the St. Simons Trilogy, 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 by her visit to Saint Simons Island, Georgia, and based on one of the island's nineteenth-century inhabitants. Price's historical romances made her a frequent member of the best-seller lists and brought her millions of readers. She died on May 28, 1996, in Brunswick, Georgia, of congestive heart failure, but her books remain in print and have been translated into 17 languages, charming readers of all ages and nationalities. Her manuscripts are housed at Boston University.