09/01/2026
We have lost the preeminent American agrarian writer and thinker, Wendell Berry. Through his prodigious volume of essays, fiction, and poetry, not only did no one stand above him on promoting sustainable agriculture and environmental policies, but also how to live a sane and satisfying life. The Unsettling of America and The Gift of Good Land are two of my favorite essay compilations. The novels Hannah Coulter, Jayber Crow, and, especially, The Memory Old Jack top the list of his fiction that I have read.
Wendell Berry was probably the most prolific writer in the creative writing program at Stanford that was founded by Pulitzer winner Wallace Stegner (Wolf Willow and Angle of Repose). Included in that program were: Sandra Day O’Connor (Supreme Court Justice), environmental activist/writer Edward Abbey (The Monkey Wrench Gang), Ernest Gaines (The Biography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Lesson Before Dying), Ken Kesey (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion), and Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove and The Last Picture Show). Can you imagine the conversations they must have had?
Rest In Peace, Wendell.
