CPI Corp.’s shareholder meeting isn’t until July 8, and already the charges and counter-charges are flying between two rival camps. Today’s volley comes from Ramius LLC, in a letter addressed to CPI Chairman David Meyer.  The letter, filed with the SEC, denies an allegation that Ramius is trying to force a sale of CPI. Ramius’ Peter Feld tells Meyer:

The company makes the assertion in its preliminary proxy statement that Ramius is seeking additional influence to control the timing of an eventual sale of the company. As you well know, we are not proposing any new candidates to the board that are directly affiliated with Ramius. Instead, we have proposed highly qualified and truly independent directors with extensive experience in the retail and consumer products industry ….

Feld acknowledges that, during the credit crunch that began last September, he did press the board to explore “any and all strategic options.” But that was because CPI “came periously close to violating a bank covenant.” Feld says he merely wanted

to ensure stockholder value would be preserved and enhanced as well as to be prepared in case the Company’s lenders were unreasonable. To characterize my actions in any other manner is frankly disingenuous and merely serves to inappropriately distract stockholders from the significant governance issues that we have highlighted.

CPI, a St. Louis company that operates portrait studios, did not renominate Feld for his board seat. Ramius, which holds a 23 percent stake in CPI, wants to re-elect Feld and add Joseph Izganics, a former Home Depot executive, to the board. It wants to oust CPI director Michael Koeneke, a colleague of Meyer at investment firm Knightspoint Partners.

Expect several more missives as this fight heats up.