Wendell Berry: Life and Work

365 Pages·2007·1.78 MB·English

by  Jason Peters (Editor)

19771-10A Wendell Berry Life & Work Cvr 5/10/10
Wendell
biography / nature Peters
“Anyone unacquainted with Wendell Berry—man of letters, farmer, recipient
of numerous awards, modern-day Jeremiah, and iconoclast of contemporary
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culture—will fi nd no better overview of his life and ideas than this collection
of reminiscences, literary criticism, and tributes. Th is is a book to be read with LIFE AND WORK
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a pencil so that passages can be savored and pondered.”—Library Journal
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“Th e wonderful thing about this collection of essays is that it demonstrates just
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how varied and far-reaching Berry’s infl uence has been and how meaningful
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his work is to his readers in so many diff erent ways.”—Resurgence
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Edited by Jason Peters

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Wendell Berry’s essays, novels, and poems have long given voice to
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a provocative but consistent philosophy, one that extends far beyond its
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agrarian core to include elements of sociology, the natural sciences, politics,
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religion, and philosophy. Wendell Berry: Life and Work examines this wise and
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original thinker, appraising his written work and exploring his infl uence as

an activist and artist. Jason Peters has assembled a broad variety of writers to L
examine aspects of Berry’s diverse yet cohesive body of work. Also included I
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are highly personal glimpses of Wendell Berry: his career, academic infl uence,
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and unconventional lifestyle. As one of America’s most profound and honest

thinkers, Berry embraces a life that sustains him not by easy purchase and A
haste but by physical labor and patience, not by mindless acquiescence to N
a centralized economy but by careful attention to local ways and wisdom. D
Together, the contributors illuminate Berry as a complex man of place and

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community with an astonishing depth of domestic, intellectual, fi lial, and
fraternal attributes. O
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Jason Peters is associate professor of English at Augustana College in K
Rock Island, Illinois.
Culture of the Land: K
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A Series in the New Agrarianism n
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series editor: Norman Wirzba u
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The University Press of Kentucky
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Cover photograph by Guy Mendes
Praise for Wendell Berry: Life and Work
“Trying to keep up with the prolifi c writings of farmer-poet-essayist Wendell
Berry leaves one both grateful and breathless. Th is rich and varied assembly
is the next-best thing to Berry’s own work and will send the reader eagerly
back to the original poems, stories, and essays. Here many skilled voices di-
agnose, extend, celebrate, and affi rm a whole range of his art and ideas—and
illuminate the striking example of his life as well. Berry’s moral and agrarian
vision is taking an ever deeper hold in America, and this book will help it
happen.”
—Ronald Jager, author of Eighty Acres: Elegy for a Family Farm
“Th is volume is of great value and importance. What emerges from these
various writings (which include telling personal memories) is the greatness
of this man, good and wise at the same time. His talents as a writer and poet
include those of a historian and a prophet. More and more Americans—en-
tire generations—ought to hear his voice and read him.”
—John Lukacs, author of At the End of an Age
“Th ough the ‘characters’ herein are real people, there is magic in this book
that rivals the best of Wendell Berry’s writings. Over and over we see solitary
readers grappling with Berry’s art and thought amid struggles and in places
unknown to the author.”
—David James Duncan, author of God Laughs and Plays: Churchless
Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right
“Th is book welcomes into community all who read Wendell Berry’s work
habitually and with mounting desire for a sane culture. It is good to have
neighbors who share the gratitude and even aff ection we feel for a man
whom most of us have not met. Th ese writers confi rm our sense that reading
Berry is one of the most important things we do.”
—Ellen F. Davis, author of Wondrous Depth: Preaching the Old Testament
“Th is is a superb collection. Berry is one of America’s greatest social critics,
essayists, and poets, and the grand simplicity and unity of his life and
thoughts emerge from the fascinating details of his personal history, cap-
tured beautifully in the words of his friends.”
—David Ehrenfeld, author of Swimming Lessons: Keeping Afl oat in the Age of
Technology
Praise for Wendell Berry: Life and Work, continued
“What a joy to read Wendell Berry: Life and Work, a rich collection of per-
sonal stories, literary critiques, and thoughtful refl ections about Wendell
Berry’s life and work—all essays written by friends who know him best. It is
all here in this wonderful collection of essays.”
—Frederick Kirschenmann, Distinguished Fellow, Leopold Center, Iowa State
University
“Wendell Berry has revitalized American agrarianism with his uncompro-
mising good sense, quiet urgency, and graceful style. Th is generous collec-
tion of reminiscences, insights, and storytelling from the who’s who of
American agrarianism ably demonstrates the power of one person to infl u-
ence an entire generation. Wendell Berry: Life and Work is worthy of the man
it honors.
—William Vitek, coeditor of Rooted in the Land: Essays on Community and
Place
Wendell Berry
Culture of the Land: A Series in the New Agrarianism
Th is series is devoted to the exploration and articulation of a new agrarian-
ism that considers the health of habitats and human communities together.
It demonstrates how agrarian insights and responsibilities can be worked
out in diverse fi elds of learning and living: history, science, art, politics,
economics, literature, philosophy, religion, urban planning, education,
and public policy. Agrarianism is a comprehensive worldview that appre-
ciates the intimate and practical connections that exist between humans
and the earth. It stands as our most promising alternative to the unsus-
tainable and destructive ways of current global, industrial, and
consumer culture.
Series Editor
Norman Wirzba, Duke University, N.C .
Advisory Board
Wendell Berry, Port Royal, Ky.
Ellen Davis, Duke University, N.C .
Patrick Holden, Soil Association, United Kingdom
Wes Jackson, Land Institute, Kans.
Gene Logsdon, Upper Sandusky, Ohio
Bill McKibben, Middlebury College, Vt.
David Orr, Oberlin College, Ohio
Michael Pollan, University of California at Berkeley, Calif.
Jennifer Sahn, Orion Magazine, Mass.
Vandana Shiva, Research Foundation for Science, Technology & Ecology, India
Bill Vitek, Clarkson University, N.Y.
Wendell
Berry

(cid:2)
LIFE AND WORK
Edited by Jason Peters
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY
Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the
National Endowment for the Humanities.
“Introduction” copyright © 2007 by Jason Peters
“Ain’t Th ey the Berries!” copyright © 2007 by Ed McClanahan
“Words Addressed to Our Condition Exactly” copyright © 2007 by Scott Russell
Sanders
“Letters from a Humble Radical” copyright © 2007 by Wes Jackson
“Wendell Berry: Agrarian Artist” copyright © 2007 by Gene Logsdon
“Education, Heresy, and the ‘Deadly Disease of the World’” copyright © 2007 by
Jason Peters
“Wendell’s Window and the Wind’s Eye” copyright © 2007 by James Baker Hall
“Fidelity” copyright © 2007 by Katherine Dalton
“A Long Shelf” copyright © 2007 by Jack Shoemaker
“Aft erword” copyright © 2007 by George Core
Copyright © 2007 by Th e University Press of Kentucky
Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea
College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, Th e Filson Historical
Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University,
Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western
Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.
Editorial and Sales Offi ces: Th e University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com
11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wendell Berry : life and work / [edited by] Jason Peters.
p. cm. — (Culture of the land)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8131-2442-1 (alk. paper)
1. Berry, Wendell, 1934– I. Peters, Jason, 1963–
PS3552.E75Z96 2007
818'.5409—dc22
[B] 2007005962
Th is book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Member of the Association of
American University Presses
For Tanya and Wendell Berry

Contents
Foreword xi
Stanley Hauerwas
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction 1
Jason Peters
Ain’t Th ey the Berries! 12
Ed McClanahan
Wendell Berry on War and Peace; Or, Port William versus the
Empire 17
Bill Kauff man
Words Addressed to Our Condition Exactly 34
Scott Russell Sanders
Th e Best Noise in the World 45
Donald Hall
Wendell Berry’s Political Vision 49
Kimberly K. Smith
How Wendell Berry Single-Handedly Preserved Th ree Hundred
Years of Agrarian Wisdom 60
David Kline
Memory and Hope in the World of Port William 66
John Leax
Politics, Nature, and Value in Wendell Berry’s “Art of the
Commonplace” 76
Eric Trethewey
Berry Britannica 88
John Lane
Wendell Berry and the Twentieth-Century Agrarian “Series” 96
Allan Carlson
A Citizen of the Real World 113
Bill McKibben
Sexuality and the Sacramental Imagination: It All Turns on
Aff ection 119
P. Travis Kroeker