Berry, Wendell (1934–)

Poet, novelist, essayist, social critic, and small farmer, Wendell Erdman Berry was born August 5, 1934, in rural Henry County, Kentucky. The years after World War II witnessed large farms replacing small ones, machines replacing horses, and internecine, debt-ridden, assistance-dependent farmers replacing a tight-knit, largely self-sufficient rural community. This agricultural transition that took place in Henry County (and more broadly, the rural United States) during Berry's formative years would have a lasting impact on his values, livelihood, and ultimately his writing. After completing the creative writing graduate program at Stanford University as a Wallace Stegner fellow, Berry spent one year in Europe as a Guggenheim fellow and two years teaching at New York University, finally to return home to Kentucky in 1964. For over a ...