The first volume of the Library of America's definitive two-volume
selection of the nonfiction writings of our greatest living advocate for
sustainable culture.
Writing with elegance and clarity, Wendell Berry is a compassionate and
compelling voice for our time of political and cultural distrust and
division, whether expounding the joys and wisdom of nonindustrial
agriculture, relishing the pleasure of eating food produced locally by
people you know, or giving voice to a righteous contempt for hollow
innovation. He is our most important writer on the cultural crisis posed
by industrialization and mass consumerism, and the vital role of rural,
sustainable farming in preserving the planet as well as our national
character. Now, in celebration of Berry's extraordinary six-decade-long
career, Library of America presents a two-volume selection of his
nonfiction writings prepared in close consultation with the author.
This first volume collects thirty-three essays from nine different
books, including his first, The Long-Legged House (1969), What are
People For? (1990), with its still provocative essay Why I am Not Going
to Buy a Computer, and the complete text of his now classic The
Unsettling of America (1975), whose argument about the enormous
ecological, economic, and human costs of industrial agriculture has, as
the author notes, not had the happy fate of being proved wrong.
Berry's essays remain timely, even urgent today, and will resonate with
anyone interested in our relationship to the natural world and
especially with a younger, politically engaged generation invested in
the future welfare of the planet.
INCLUDES:
*The Unsettling of America
*
AND SELECTIONS FROM
The Long-Legged House
The Hidden Wound
A Continuous Harmony
Recollected Essays
The Gift of Good Land
Standing by Words
Home Economics
What Are People For?
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization
founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by
publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most
significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than
300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in
length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are
printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
