Following his death this week, those who knew acclaimed novelist, farmer and environmentalist Wendell Berry say they will remember him as an unendingly curious champion of community.
The literary giant spent much of his time on his family farm in Henry County, a choice that helped shape him as an advocate for a rural, small way of life. He lived modestly, self-limiting access to modern inventions, like computers or air conditioning.
During his career, Berry penned eight novels, plus countless short stories, poems and essays. His life's work was an extension of his activism. The farmer was a staunch opponent of industrialization and an unfailing supporter of land conservation and community building.
Berry died Aug. 31 on his family farm at age 92.
In an interview Tuesday, his daughter, Mary Berry, cast him as a man of the people.
"My father worked for working landscapes and working people," she said. "He thought you could never think about land without thinking about the people, and thinking about people without thinking about land was equally was, and I'll use my word, stupid."
While known for his published works, the Kentucky novelist advocated for protecting the Red River Gorge and protested mountaintop removal and industrial development in rural spaces, sometimes leading to his arrest.
Mary Berry says much of what he wrote about — in works like 1977's "The Unsettling of America" — has come to pass.
"People have sometimes thought of daddy as some kind of, well, he's been called a curmudgeon," she said. "He's been called a crank, been called backward, all those kinds of things. And reviewers often said he wants to go back. And daddy would say, 'I mean, at least they could credit me with the intelligence to know we can't go back.'"
Berry's death this week comes as data center construction overwhelms the national conversation and as the federal government continues to rollback environmental protections.
People who knew him say the old farmer was surprisingly funny, and would often match his blunt honesty with kindness, empathy and offbeat humor.
Rachel Hampton, a graduate of the Wendell Berry Farming Program, has had multiple encounters with the author. She now operates a farm of her own in Ohio.
"The last few years we've been to Kentucky Arts and Letters Day, and everybody wants him to read some passage from Unsettling or some great work, and he would just read these short stories that were just hilarious," Hampton said. "He was like, 'No, like I'm just gonna do something that you all don't expect.'"
Hampton was never close to Berry, and most of her personal interactions were through speaking events or letters. The author was widely known to correspond via snail mail. Despite that, she feels a significant connection.
"He's written so much," she said, "and I feel like if you want to know who he is, it's all there. Like, it's in the text."
Berry was the 2011 recipient of the National Humanities Medal, awarded by then-President Barack Obama. Behind the novelist's immense body of work was an unflinching curiosity.
"Everything was worth considering," Hampton said. "He has a poem about sorting the mail, and I just think that's brilliant. That you can take this mundane thing, and that it's worth thinking about. And that the ability to use your mind and the ability to use your body is something to be celebrated."
Farmer Chris Luke, of Rowan County, is among those who corresponded with Berry for several years. He now takes care of some of Berry's former sheep herd.
"His ability to remember what he'd read, and to quote from what he'd read, and to reference it was just astounding," Luke said. "Yes, he was down to earth, and yes, he was a man of the people, but his ability to retain knowledge was absolutely incredible."
For some, Berry's writing and way of life fundamentally shaped their way of thinking.
In 2016, filmmaker Laura Dunn released the documentary "Look & See," which captures Berry's worldview. In the agrarian spirit of letting nothing go to waste, she released a follow-up with unused footage last year.
"There's an ethos about small places and family farming that is a template, not just for farming, but for a whole life of what kinds of values will shape you," Dunn said. "Not the ambition of the world, but the values of what really matters to you."
His daughter, Mary Berry, says that's something she's internalized as she continues her work as executive director of the Berry Center. The organization's mission continues Berry's legacy of reintroducing people to the land and their communities, and decoupling from industrialization.
"It'll take longer than I'm going to be alive," she said of the effort. "It's going to take a long time. But the wonderful thing about doing work that looks endless is that, if you're looking, if you've got the scale right, you will see improvement. You will feel improvement."
Dunn agrees.
"The world is often challenging," she said, "and so, this idea of, if it's hard, that's a good thing. Don't try to escape the difficult moments. Embrace them, walk right into them."
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