Background
BERRY, Wendell was born on August 5, 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky, United States.
(Jayber Crow, born in Goforth, Kentucky, orphaned at age t...)
Jayber Crow, born in Goforth, Kentucky, orphaned at age ten, began his search as a "pre-ministerial student" at Pigeonville College. There, freedom met with new burdens and a young man needed more than a mirror to find himself. But the beginning of that finding was a short conversation with "Old Grit," his profound professor of New Testament Greek. "You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them outperhaps a little at a time." "And how long is that going to take?" "I don't know. As long as you live, perhaps." "That could be a long time." "I will tell you a further mystery," he said. "It may take longer." Eventually, after the flood of 1937, Jayber becomes the barber of the small community of Port William, Kentucky. From behind that barber chair he lives out the questions that drove him from seminary and begins to accept the gifts of community that enclose his answers. The chair gives him a perfect perch from which to listen, to talk, and to see, as life spends itself all around. In this novel full of remarkable characters, he tells his story that becomes the story of his town and its transcendent membership. Jayber Crow, born in Goforth, Kentucky, orphaned at age ten, began his search as a "pre-ministerial student" at Pigeonville College. There, freedom met with new burdens and a young man needed more than a mirror to find himself. But the beginning of that finding was a short conversation with "Old Grit," his profound professor of New Testament Greek. "You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them outperhaps a little at a time." "And how long is that going to take?" "I don't know. As long as you live, perhaps." "That could be a long time." "I will tell you a further mystery," he said. "It may take longer." Eventually, after the flood of 1937, Jayber becomes the barber of the small community of Port William, Kentucky. From behind that barber chair he lives out the questions that drove him from seminary and begins to accept the gifts of community that enclose his answers. The chair gives him a perfect perch from which to listen, to talk, and to see, as life spends itself all around. In this novel full of remarkable characters, he tells his story that becomes the story of his town and its transcendent membership.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003SNIZV2/?tag=2022091-20
("Here is a human being speaking with calm and sanity out ...)
"Here is a human being speaking with calm and sanity out of the wilderness. We would do well to hear him."The Washington Post Book World Art of the Commonplace gathers twenty essays by Wendell Berry that offer an agrarian alternative to our dominant urban culture. Grouped around five themesan agrarian critique of culture, agrarian fundamentals, agrarian economics, agrarian religion, and geo-biographythese essays promote a clearly defined and compelling vision important to all people dissatisfied with the stress, anxiety, disease, and destructiveness of contemporary American culture. Why is agriculture becoming culturally irrelevant, and at what cost? What are the forces of social disintegration and how might they be reversed? How might men and women live together in ways that benefit both? And, how does the corporate takeover of social institutions and economic practices contribute to the destruction of human and natural environments? Through his staunch support of local economies, his defense of farming communities, and his call for family integrity, Berry emerges as the champion of responsibilities and priorities that serve the health, vitality and happiness of the whole community of creation. "Here is a human being speaking with calm and sanity out of the wilderness. We would do well to hear him."The Washington Post Book World Art of the Commonplace gathers twenty essays by Wendell Berry that offer an agrarian alternative to our dominant urban culture. Grouped around five themesan agrarian critique of culture, agrarian fundamentals, agrarian economics, agrarian religion, and geo-biographythese essays promote a clearly defined and compelling vision important to all people dissatisfied with the stress, anxiety, disease, and destructiveness of contemporary American culture. Why is agriculture becoming culturally irrelevant, and at what cost? What are the forces of social disintegration and how might they be reversed? How might men and women live together in ways that benefit both? And, how does the corporate takeover of social institutions and economic practices contribute to the destruction of human and natural environments? Through his staunch support of local economies, his defense of farming communities, and his call for family integrity, Berry emerges as the champion of responsibilities and priorities that serve the health, vitality and happiness of the whole community of creation.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593760078/?tag=2022091-20
(In New Collected Poems, the poet revisits for the first t...)
In New Collected Poems, the poet revisits for the first time his immensely popular Collected Poems, which The New York Times Book Review described as a straightforward search for a life connected to the soil, for marriage as a sacrament and family life” that affirms a style that is resonant with the authentic,” and [returns] American poetry to a Wordsworthian clarity of purpose.” In New Collected Poems, Berry reprints the nearly two hundred pieces in Collected Poems, along with the poems from his most recent collectionsEntries, Given, and Leavingsto create an expanded collection, showcasing the work of a man heralded by The Baltimore Sun as a sophisticated, philosophical poet in the line descending from Emerson and Thoreau . . . a major poet of our time.” Wendell Berry is the author of over fifty works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and has been awarded numerous literary prizes, including the T. S. Eliot Award, a National Institute of Arts and Letters award for writing, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Jean Stein Award, and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. While he began publishing work in the 1960s, Booklist has written that Berry has become ever more prophetic,” clearly standing up to the test of time. In New Collected Poems, the poet revisits for the first time his immensely popular Collected Poems, which The New York Times Book Review described as a straightforward search for a life connected to the soil, for marriage as a sacrament and family life” that affirms a style that is resonant with the authentic,” and [returns] American poetry to a Wordsworthian clarity of purpose.” In New Collected Poems, Berry reprints the nearly two hundred pieces in Collected Poems, along with the poems from his most recent collectionsEntries, Given, and Leavingsto create an expanded collection, showcasing the work of a man heralded by The Baltimore Sun as a sophisticated, philosophical poet in the line descending from Emerson and Thoreau . . . a major poet of our time.” Wendell Berry is the author of over fifty works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, and has been awarded numerous literary prizes, including the T. S. Eliot Award, a National Institute of Arts and Letters award for writing, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Jean Stein Award, and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. While he began publishing work in the 1960s, Booklist has written that Berry has become ever more prophetic,” clearly standing up to the test of time.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1619021528/?tag=2022091-20
(Wendell Berry identifies himself as both a farmer of sor...)
Wendell Berry identifies himself as both a farmer of sorts and an artist of sorts,” which he deftly illustrates in the scope of these 22 essays. Ranging from America’s insatiable consumerism and household economies to literary subjects and America’s attitude toward waste, Berry gracefully navigates from one topic to the next. He speaks candidly about the ills plaguing America and the growing gap between people and the land. Despite the somber nature of these essays, Berry’s voice and prose provide an underlying sense of faith and hope. He frames his reflections with poetic responsibility, standing up as a firm believer in the power of the human race not only to fix its past mistakes but to build a future that will provide a better life for all. Wendell Berry identifies himself as both a farmer of sorts and an artist of sorts,” which he deftly illustrates in the scope of these 22 essays. Ranging from America’s insatiable consumerism and household economies to literary subjects and America’s attitude toward waste, Berry gracefully navigates from one topic to the next. He speaks candidly about the ills plaguing America and the growing gap between people and the land. Despite the somber nature of these essays, Berry’s voice and prose provide an underlying sense of faith and hope. He frames his reflections with poetic responsibility, standing up as a firm believer in the power of the human race not only to fix its past mistakes but to build a future that will provide a better life for all.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00APDAVG0/?tag=2022091-20
(For nearly thirty-five years, Wendell Berry has been at w...)
For nearly thirty-five years, Wendell Berry has been at work on a series of poems occasioned by his solitary Sunday walks around his farm in Kentucky. From riverfront and meadows, to grass fields and woodlots, every inch of this hillside farm lives in these poems, as do the poet’s constant companions of memory and occasion, family and animals, who have with Berry created his Home Place with love and gratitude. These are poems of spiritual longing and political extremity, memorials and celebrations, elegies and lyrics, alongside the occasional rants of the Mad Farmer, pushed to the edge yet again by his compatriots and elected officials. With the publication of this new complete edition, it has become increasingly clear that The Sabbath Poems have become the very heart of Berry’s entire work. And these magnificent poems, taken as a whole, have become one of the greatest contributions ever made to American poetry. For nearly thirty-five years, Wendell Berry has been at work on a series of poems occasioned by his solitary Sunday walks around his farm in Kentucky. From riverfront and meadows, to grass fields and woodlots, every inch of this hillside farm lives in these poems, as do the poet’s constant companions of memory and occasion, family and animals, who have with Berry created his Home Place with love and gratitude. These are poems of spiritual longing and political extremity, memorials and celebrations, elegies and lyrics, alongside the occasional rants of the Mad Farmer, pushed to the edge yet again by his compatriots and elected officials. With the publication of this new complete edition, it has become increasingly clear that The Sabbath Poems have become the very heart of Berry’s entire work. And these magnificent poems, taken as a whole, have become one of the greatest contributions ever made to American poetry.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1619024365/?tag=2022091-20
activist critic novelist writer poet
BERRY, Wendell was born on August 5, 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky, United States.
University of Ky.
Author: (novels) Nathan Coulter, 1962, rev. edition, 1985, A Place on Earth, 1967, 2d. edition, 1985, The Memory of Old Jack, 1974, Remembering, 1988, A World Lost, 1996; (short stories) The Wild Birds, 1986, Fidelity, 1992, Watch With Me, 1994; (poetry) The Broken Ground, 1964, Openings, 1968, 2d edition, 1980, Findings, 1969, Farming: A Handbook, 1970, 2d edition, 1985, The Country of Marriage, 1973, 2 edition, 1985, Clearing, 1977, A Part, 1980, The Wheel, 1982, Collected Poems, 1985, Sabbaths, 1987, Entries, 1994, Hannah Coulter, 2004, Given, 2005; (essays) The Long-Legged House, 1969, The Hidden Wound, 1970, The Unforeseen Wilderness, 1971, A Continuous Harmony, 1972, The Unsettling of America, 1977, Recollected Essays, 1965-1980, 1981, The Gift of Good Land, 1981, Standing by Words, 1985, Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community, 1993; co-editor: (with Jackson and Colman) Meeting the Expectations of the Land, 1985, Home Economics, 1987, What Are People For, 1990, Harland Hubbard: Life and Work, 1990, Standing on Earth, 1991, Another Turn of the Crank.
(In New Collected Poems, the poet revisits for the first t...)
(As the United States prepares to leave its long war in Af...)
(Only a farmer could delve so deeply into the origins of f...)
(For nearly thirty-five years, Wendell Berry has been at w...)
(Wendell Berry identifies himself as both a farmer of sor...)
(Jayber Crow, born in Goforth, Kentucky, orphaned at age t...)
("Here is a human being speaking with calm and sanity out ...)
Faculty, University of Ky. 1964-1977, since 1987, Distinguished.
Married Tanya Amyx in 1957.