Mr. Wendell Berry of Kentucky

Wendell E. Berry named 41st Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities

WASHINGTON (February 6, 2012) — Wendell E. Berry, noted poet, essayist, novelist, farmer, and conservationist, will deliver the 2012 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. The annual lecture, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), is the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.

“Wendell Berry is an American treasure whose prose and poetry have— with subtlety, intelligence, and conviction—helped open our eyes to the importance of respecting and living with nature,” said NEH Chairman Jim Leach. “Tilling the land of his Kentucky forebears, he is a 21st-century Henry David Thoreau.”

Berry will present the 41^st Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities on Monday, April 23, 2012 at 7:30 PM at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In the lecture, “It All Turns on Affection,” Berry will discuss man’s interaction with nature, as depicted in history, philosophy, and literature.

via www.neh.gov

 

Request tickets HERE.

Washington Post article HERE.

"Wendell Berry Is Still Alive and Well"

Wendell Berry is still alive.   Back in June of 2009, a blogger apparently pulled a “Twain” on the former professor at University of Kentucky and ‘exaggerated’ his death.  It turns out (although Thomas Berry passed away) the man who bought some land in Henry County (Wendell) has survived and continues to thrive.  Here’s a Youtube clip of the poet being introduced by Bill McKibben.

via thebarking.com

Jim Powell on Wendell Berry in 3P Review

Wendell and Tanya Berry set apart an area of land on the periphery of their Kentucky hillside property, when they settled there in 1964, as a wild preserve permanently removed from cultivation. It was a usage stemming from the agricultural tradition Berry was born into—self-sufficient domestic diversified farming, as practiced in Henry County by five generations of Berrys. Because the industrialized monocrop agriculture that replaced it prefers large uniform fields, progress came late to this intricate terrain. By the time Berry returned there to settle, Henry County’s economically marginalized status in the new scheme of things made it a likely place to find a pocket of land to reclaim for the practice of a new-style old-style agriculture.

via www.threepennyreview.com

Happy Birthday, Mr. Wendell Berry!!

(Photo: Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post)

"There is joy for a man in his utterance; a word in season, how good it is!" (Proverbs 15.23)

Of interest: "Court ruling reminds lawyers to keep it civil"

Letter criticized ethics commission

According to court filings, Henry County lawyer and former state Sen. John M. Berry Jr. attempted to attend an August 2007 Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission hearing stemming from allegations of fund-raising irregularities by David Williams, president of the Kentucky Senate and this year a Republican candidate for governor.

Court documents say Berry and his brother, author Wendell Berry, were not permitted to attend the hearing. He sent a letter to the commission and the media stating in part that excluding the public and the media from the hearing “gave cause for some to speculate that the deck was stacked and the Senator would be exonerated. I was not, and am not, willing to go that far, but I do believe that your order … that exonerated him was contrary to the undisputed evidence that was presented.”

via www.bizjournals.com

WB listed among "25 Environmentalists Ahead Of Their Time"

Wendell Berry: Poet and essayist Wendell Berry has written extensively about human’s relationship with the Earth, publishing works like A Continuous Harmony: Essays Cultural and Agricultural as early as the 1970s. Berry has a B.A. in English as well as an M.A. from the University of Kentucky but has also worked as a farmer — his father was a lawyer and tobacco farmer in Kentucky. Some of the philosophies he’s known for include local economics, frugality and the interconnectedness of life.

via www.greenecoservices.com

Blog Watch: Visiting Wendell Berry

I grew up in Kentucky knowing about the author Wendell Berry and all that he's written about conservation and farming. Before I was born, Wendell wrote an essay about my father. The book was eventually published in a book called The Long Legged House. I've had a copy from 1971 in my collection since I was very young. Several months ago my dad mentioned to Wendell that I'd like to interview him for my thesis (more about the project in another post). Wendell said he doesn't do interviews anymore but he'd consider it if I wrote to him. And thus began the journey.

via studioblublog.com

"A Visit with Wendell Berry"

Allen Levi, Ben May, and I stood on Wendell Berry’s front porch as nervous as schoolboys. Allen had prayed aloud as we pulled up to the little Kentucky farmhouse that God would keep the visit from descending into some goofy hero worship, and that we’d remember who we are, that somehow our visit would amount to a blessing to the Berrys even as it would be to us. Basically it was, “Dear God, don’t let us be dummies.”

via www.rabbitroom.com

Blog Watch : WB's cameo in "A Letter to Andrew Peterson"

A bit of background might be in order. For years, since i first heard his music on a CD titled “Carried Along,” Andrew Peterson has been one of my favorite songwriters. If you don’t know his work, you’ll thank me for this introduction. He is, simply said, a master at his craft. He composes, sings, performs, writes books and is a gifted visual artist. Best of all, he is a big hearted soul with a winsome and expressive affection for his family and his friends. Last weekend, on the 14th, he and i played a gathering in Louisville, Kentucky and then, on Sunday, drove to Port Royal, Kentucky with friend, Ben May. There we spent two delightful hours with Wendell Berry, an author who is a favorite to the three of us, and his wife Tanya. More about that perhaps in a future blog.

via allenlevi.wordpress.com

Happy Birthday, Mr. Berry!

Wendell Berry is 76 today ...

"The words from a man's mouth are deep waters, 

but the source of wisdom is a flowing brook." 

Proverbs 18.4