Conversations with Wendell Berry (Literary Conversations Series) (Paperback)

by Morris Allen Grubbs (Editor) "If you've never heard of Wendell Berry, it's probably only because the man hasn't been too worried about becoming famous..." (more)
Key Phrases: local food economy, cheap petroleum, Wendell Berry, Port William, Port Royal (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Since 1960, Wendell Berry (b. 1934) has produced one of the most substantial and consistently thematic bodies of work of any modern American writer. In more than fifty books in various genres--novels, short stories, poems, and essays--he has celebrated a life lived in close communion with neighbors and the earth and has addressed many of our most urgent cultural maladies. His collections of essays urge us to think and act responsibly as members of a community--both human and natural. Volumes of his poems seek to wed us to nature and realign our vision with its mysteries. His growing Port William cycle of novels offers us a fictional model for understanding, for compassion, and for living in constant regard for others.

Conversations with Wendell Berry gathers for the first time interviews with the writer, ranging from 1973 to 2006, including one never before published. For readers acquainted with Berry's work, this volume offers insights available nowhere else. It reveals succinctly the main currents of his life's work. What emerges is a citizen-writer profoundly affected by cultural crises at home and in the world.

From the Publisher
This book

---Collects interviews with the author of A Place on Earth, Hannah Coulter, and other works

---Ranges from 1973 to 2006, covering a broad stretch of Berry's career

---Expands the Literary Conversations Series

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Product Details

• Paperback: 218 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (August 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578069920
• ISBN-13: 978-1578069927
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #403,561 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Find a Place and Spend Your Life Learning about It, January 12, 2009

By	Patricia Kramer (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Bit by bit our society is learning the value of eating locally and supporting the local community. Wendell Berry has understood this for years and has lived his life with community and fidelity at its core. The interviews in this book begin in 1973 and extend through 2006. I found some of the interviewers more interesting than others. The one that drew out the most from Berry was Jordan Fisher Smith.

Here are Wendell Berry's thoughts on a stable community in the Plowboy interview in 1973.
"You've got to have people who talk to each other a lot and who have experiences in common. In a settled farming community old friends get together to work and one thing they do is tell each other again the stories they already know. This is a complex community function. They celebrate their old acquaintance in that way, they celebrate themselves. They alert each other to the realities of their lives and their history. And the effect that it has on story-telling is that it improves the stories.

But the stories in the media today cater to the wish people have for everything to be new. That's very much the emphasis in our arts today, for example. That's not different at all from the Madison Avenue ideal that thrives on the establishments and immediate wearing out of fashions and fads. Any culture building itself on this kind of novelty is bound to run thin."

5.0 out of 5 stars America's good sense prophet, June 10, 2009

By	William J. McGill (Annville, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This collection of eighteen interviews spanning thirty-three years underscores not only the prescience but also the consistency of one of America's great treasures: Wendell Berry-- wonderful fiction writer, compelling poet and thoughtful essayist. Whether he is responding to questions about his writing, his views on agriculture, or the state of society, he speaks with a compelling voice, one that more people in this land should hear, more than hear, should listen to. This volume is an excellent introduction to his ideas..