President Barack Obama awarded the 2010 National Humanities Medal to Wendell E. Berry during a White House ceremony in 2011. Known for his novels and poetry, Berry dedicated his life to both farming and prose, nurturing land that had been cultivated by his family for seven generations in Henry County, Kentucky. He passed away at the age of 92 in his home in Port Royal, Kentucky.
Berry’s writing career began in academia. He studied at the University of Kentucky and Stanford and had secured a prestigious role as an English professor at New York University by age 28. However, city life did not suit him. In his 1968 essay A Native Hill, Berry reflected on his choice to leave the New York literary scene after two years, opting for his home in Kentucky instead. He noted, “I had made a significant change in my relation to the place: before it had been mine by coincidence or accident; now it was mine by choice. My return, which at first had been hesitant and tentative, grew wholehearted and sure. I had come back to stay. I hoped to live here the rest of my life.” This aspiration was realized as his family’s farmland became the focal point of his literary and environmental endeavors.
Berry strongly criticized industrialized farming and approached technology with caution. He refrained from owning a computer, preferring to write manually and type using a typewriter bought in 1956. His work embodies a deliberate pace and attention to details in nature, as illustrated in his 2001 poem June Wind, where he observes, “Light and wind are running Over the headed grass As though the hill had Melted and now flowed.” His writing also explored broader political themes, such as in the poem Against the War in Vietnam published in 1968. He expressed, “In the name of ourselves we ride at the wheels of our engines, in the name of Plenty devouring all, the exhaust of our progress falling deadly on villages and fields we do not see. We are prepared for millions of little deaths.”
Berry was the recipient of the National Humanities Medal awarded by President Obama in 2012, and in 2015 he became the first living author inducted into the Kentucky writer’s Hall of Fame. In a 1998 NPR interview for All Things Considered, Berry was reluctant to advise young people about life directions, stating, “I think advising the young about a life course is probably not a responsible thing to do.” Nevertheless, he suggested young people should consider settling somewhere to learn its history, understand its flora and fauna, and get to know the community. His writings offer timeless wisdom on appreciating and respecting one’s environment deeply.