Richard Henry Wilde Dillard was born in Roanoke, Virginia. His parents were Benton O. Dillard, a Roanoke attorney and later that city's mayor, and Mattie Mullins Dillard. With the exception of fifteen months spent in Tampa while his father was stationed there in the air force during World War II, Dillard has lived all his life in Virginia. As for travels beyond the United States, Dillard has written: "The only foreign countries I have visited are England, Wales, Canada, and the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, although I did look at France from the deck of the Queen Elizabeth twice (everybody wore blue T-shirts and berets; it might have been a movie set; probably was)." Dillard was educated in Roanoke public schools, graduated from Roanoke College in 1958, where he earned a B.A. in English and played the clarinet in the marching band. In 1959 he received his M.A...