Book description
Essayist, social critic, poet, "mad farmer," novelist,
teacher, and prophet: Wendell Berry has been called many things, but
the broad sweep of his contemporary relevance and influence defies
facile labels. With his unique perspective and far-reaching vision,
Berry poses complex questions about humankind and our relationship to
the land and offers simple but profound solutions. Berry's essays,
novels, and poems give voice to a provocative but consistent
philosophy, one that extends far beyond its agrarian core to include
elements of sociology, the natural sciences, politics, religion,
philosophy, linguistics, agriculture, and other seemingly incompatible
fields of study. Wendell Berry: Life and Work examines this wise and
original thinker, appraising his written work and exploring his
influence as an activist and artist. Jason Peters has assembled a
broad variety of writers including Hayden Carruth, Sven Birkerts,
Barbara Kingsolver, Stanley Hauerwas, Donald Hall, Ed McClanahan, Bill
McKibben, Scott Russell Sanders, Norman Wirzba, Wes Jackson, and Eric
T. Freyfogle. Each contributor examines an aspect of Berry's varied
yet cohesive body of work. Also included are highly personal glimpses
of Wendell Berry: his career, academic influence, and unconventional
lifestyle. These deft sketches of Berry show the purity of his
agrarian lifestyle and demonstrate that there is nothing simple about
the life to which he has devoted himself. He embraces a life that
sustains him not by easy purchase and haste but by physical labor and
patience, not by mindless acquiescence to a centralized economy but by
careful attention to local ways and wisdom. Wendell Berry: Life and
Work combines biographical sketches, personal accounts, literary
criticism, and social commentary. Together, the contributors
illuminate Berry as he is: a complex man of place and community with
an astonishing depth of domestic, intellectual, filial, and fraternal
attributes. The result is a rich portrait of one of America's most
profound and honest thinkers.
""Pairing literary criticism with more personal work,
Peters' volume does a remarkable jobn connecting the dots between
Berry's physical labors and his intellectual ones." --The Post
and Courier (online)" --
Jason Peters is Dorothy J. Parkander Chair in Literature,
Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.
