It is heartening to see all the people writing remembrances of Wendell Berry and posting quotes from his work. But the question presses forward: what are we going to do in response to such a life? Words alone are empty.
Posts in: Wendell Berry
It’s good to hear, from the people who knew him best, that your hero was a truly good man.
Well what can I say? No one apart from immediate family has shaped me more than Wendell Berry. He’s been a part of my life for over twenty years and, for the last several, I’ve thought about him nearly every day. He did a lifetime’s worth of good work, the public face of which he left for our bookshelves. What worked in him still works in us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Another good thing today: it’s Wendell Berry’s 92nd birthday. Happy birthday, uncle Wendell!
🚨 New Wendell Berry essay collection alert 🚨
The Wild Geese
From Wendell Berry, The Country of Marriage Horseback on Sunday morning, harvest over, we taste persimmon and wild grape, sharp sweet of summer’s end. In time’s maze over the fall fields, we name names that went west from here, names that rest on graves. We open a persimmon seed to find the tree that stands in promise, pale, in the seed’s marrow. Geese appear high over us, pass, and the sky closes.
The land of God
Wendell Berry, “Two Economies”: Some time ago, in conversation with Wes Jackson in which we were laboring to define the causes of the modern ruination of farmland, we finally got around to the money economy. I said that an economy based on energy would be more benign because it would be more comprehensive. Wes would not agree. “An energy economy still wouldn’t be comprehensive enough.” “Well,” I said, “then what kind of economy would be comprehensive enough?
I decided over the weekend that I wanted more than a single Wendell Berry resources page on my personal blog. I’m working on a new site called BerryBlog. It’ll be very much a work in progress for a while. Also, micro.blog folks, I’m still trying to understand how this will work with the timeline.
Why Port William?
Dear A—, You asked me why I love Wendell Berry’s fiction. There’s no accounting for taste, as you’ve heard, but here’s my attempt. First you should know what the man himself is about. Famously, he left behind a promising academic career to write and farm at his old home place. In the decades since he has become one of the leading lights of localism and agrarianism. His influence has been significant, touching everything from the literary world to family farms to the local food movement.
Port William Surnames
In one of his Just a Few Acres Farm videos, Pete was repairing a plow and mentioned the coulter. Being a Wendell Berry nerd, I recognized that as one of the surnames in Port William. That led me down a rabbit hole. Let’s be clear: the following is pure speculation based on internet research and could be wrong. Coulter A blade or disc set ahead of the plowshare that cuts into the soil, resulting in a neater furrrow.