Almanac of Story Tellers: Wendell Berry

Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to story telling -- in prose and in poetry, in art and in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books. 

Today is the story of Aug. 5th

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    It is the 217th day of the year, leaving 148 days remaining in 2022.

 

   On this date in 1934, the writer, activist, and farmer Wendell Berry was born in Port Royal, Ky.

    He tells his stories of his love for the land, joy in the simple tasks of life, and hope for a clean and honest future in his poems, novels, and essays. He practices what he preaches -- spending his life farming in tune with nature on land in sight of his birthplace, teaching students at the University of Kentucky, and speaking out against war, injustice, and the degradation of nature.

    Through his writings and his teachings, Berry honed a simple message -- we must live in harmony with nature. We must accept the rhythms of the land and all of its inhabitants, and reject the idea we can improve, ignore, or destroy our environment without consequences.

    His first collection of poetry, Broken Ground, published in 1964, highlight his concern about the abuse of land, and his desire to restore balance to nature.

                                        We could not help but look
                                        With backward eyes on spring,
                                        When fresh fields lay to sun
                                        Like a clutch of eggs before
                                       The warmth of the hatching hen.

    By reading Berry, one learns about Kentucky, its culture and its ways, its quirks and its mannerisms, its country and its people. His novels, especially, capture the tone and the setting of rural Kentucky and its small towns. Often set in the fictional town of Port William -- similar to his Henry County hometown of Port Royal -- the novels, beginning with The Memory of Old Jack, and continuing with Jayber Crow and Hannah Coulter, helped tell the history of Kentucky from its Civil War days, through the 19th Century and into the 21st Century.

    His short stories complemented the larger novels, telling the stories of a revolving cast of characters and how they lived and breathed the land.

    Berry still lives and works in Port Royal, on the banks of the Kentucky River in northeastern Kentucky.