Reynolds Price has now penned three volumes of memoir, including one on his early life in North Carolina ("Clear Pictures") and one about the battle with spinal cancer that left him paralyzed in the 1980s ("A Whole New Life").

The prolific author begins his latest memoir, "Ardent Spirits," about his time as a Rhodes Scholar and the subsequent launch of his teaching career at Duke University, literally and metaphorically at sea, as he sails for England on a trans-Atlantic ocean liner.

It is a romantic starting point, to be sure, but also exactly the right one.