Wendell Berry

You would think that, given our agrarian leanings here at Cumberland Books, the very first featured author would have been Wendell Berry, the intellectual heir of the 20th century agrarian movement. But it's only now, six years into the project, that we are adding any of Mr. Berry's books. And I have to admit that this is because until recently I was unable to wrap my brain around his extensive, complex, and intricate body of work.

Not that I've gotten any smarter in the past six years, but just that I've now read enough of his work to have an inkling of how it fits together, and am able to give it a properly enthusiastic recommendation. I don't think it is necessary for our readers to study Mr. Berry to the same depth—all his work, even the shortest of essays and stories, is able to edify and to inspire—but be forewarned that you run the risk of becoming entranced by Mr. Berry's vision, and devoting your self to deeper study than you first intended.

Wendell Berry grew up in a family that had farmed in Henry County, Kentucky for at least five generations. As a promising young writer he married and spent some time wandering, but at age 30 he purchased a homestead only a few miles from his birthplace and settled in to farm, teach, and establish himself as a regional writer. For the past forty years he has devoted himself to being a close observer of life around him at every level, from the hillsides of his farm to the social landscape of the globe. In his fiction, poetry, and essays he has worked to understand and to explain the agrarian way of life in all its aspects. There is no better writer to turn to for a thorough critique of modern industrialism, along with a deep and comprehensive account of the agrarian alternative.

These seven books contain the writing that is central to Wendell Berry's agrarian project.

• The Unsettling of America. Berry is best known for this book-length examination of the shortcomings of modern industrial agriculture and their historical origins.
• The Art of the Commonplace. A collection of twenty-one of Berry's agrarian essays. Although every Berry student probably has a favorite essay that isn't included, editor Norman Wirzba has chosen well. For those who want to be familiar with Berry's work but aren't ready for an extensive study, this is a vital book to have.
• Home Economics. From the period when Berry was actively working out his understanding of the fundamentals of agrarianism. Many of the essays overlap in a good way, taking repeated looks at important concepts from different angles. This was my favorite collection when I first read it, and it remains in first place today.
• Another Turn of the Crank. Containing six short essays, this is probably Wendell Berry's most concise and focused statement of his agrarian philosophy as it stood in the mid-90s. A very important book.
• Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community. Not as focused as Home Economics or Another Turn of the Crank, but still the home of several important essays on agrarianism, together with some writing on marriage, peaceableness, and Christianity.
• What are People For? More varied than the collections listed above, containing a number of agrarian essays but with one section given over to some very helpful pieces on writing.
• The Gift of Good Land. An early collection of twenty-four essays, including a number of excellent articles that Berry wrote for farming publications. Contains the very important essay "Solving for Pattern."

Wendell Berry is the quintessential essayist, and over the course of forty years has written on other than agrarian topics, some close by and some far afield. We recommend them all.

• The Way of Ignorance. The most recent collection, some agrarian, some political, and a handful of very important pieces where Berry begins to explore the limits of knowledge and how we should respect them.
• Citizenship Papers. Pieces on biotechnology, the war on terror, and some very important pieces on the global economy ("The Total Economy") and agrarianism ("The Agrarian Standard", "The Whole Horse").
• Life is a Miracle. An astonishing book-length essay on modern science as superstition, the heart of which is a dismantling of Edward O. Wilson's supremely arrogant book Consilience.
• A Continuous Harmony. An early collection which includes "Think Little," a famous piece written for the Last Whole Earth Catalog, and the extended centerpiece "Discipline and Hope."
• The Long-Legged House. Berry's first collection of essays, with three of them—"The Rise," "The Long-Legged House," and "A Native Hill"—discuss a writer's efforts to find his home place, his native ground, his place on earth.
• Standing by Words. No matter what form he chooses, Berry is a formidable writer, the clearest and most careful I've ever read. In six essays he considers the degeneration of language that is manifest throughout our culture, from poetry to politics, from conversation to advertising, and he shows how it mirrors the increasing isolation of individuals from their communities and of their communities from the land.
• The Hidden Wound. This book-length essay explores the “hidden wound” of racism and its pernicious effects on white people in America.

Wendell Berry's essays can at times be cold and analytical, and should always be balanced with a healthy dose of his fiction. For forty years Berry has written about the times and people of tiny Port William, Kentucky, a community that has much in common with his own home town of Port Royal. These nine books together contain all the Port William stories up through 2008.

• Nathan Coulter. The first Port William novel.
• A Place on Earth. The second Port William novel, focused less on particular characters than on the place itself.
• The Memory of Old Jack. The third Port William novel, in which Old Jack Beechum spends a day reflecting on his flawed but admirable life.
• Remembering. The fourth Port William novel, introducing Nathan's son Andy, who is very much like Wendell Berry himself.
• A World Lost. The fifth Port William novel, covering an incident that occurred shortly after the time covered by Nathan Coulter.
• Jayber Crow. A sweet, sweet tale about life on the periphery of the Port William community, told by the town barber.
• Hannah Coulter. Hannah is truly admirable woman who joins the Port William community and makes it her own. Contains some especially poignant reflections on how education drives children away from home.
• That Distant Land. Twenty-three stories about Port William, with a helpful chronology that shows how they fit together with the novels.
• Andy Catlett: Early Travels. A story of the early boyhood of Berry's alter ego Andy Catlett, set in the early 1940s.

Finally, three books that will be of interest to Wendell Berry fans.

• The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Poetry allows Wendell Berry to say things about the agrarian life that just can't be said otherwise. This collection of one hundred poems is wide-ranging and representative.
• Wendell Berry and the Agrarian Tradition. Kimberly Smith, professor of political science, has written a remarkable book that pieces together Wendell Berry's thoughts on agrarianism, extracts and explains the main themes, and places them in historical context. Invaluable for anyone who is studying Berry closely.
• Wendell Berry: Life and Work. A delightful collection of essays about Berry as essayist, novelist, poet, agrarian thinker, and friend. As a writer Berry can be aloof and forbidding; this book does much to add a personal dimension to his work.