Library of America inaugurates its edition of the complete fiction of
one of America's most beloved living writers
For more than fifty years, in eight novels and fortytwo short stories,
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) has created an indelible portrait of rural
America through the lens of Port William, Kentucky, one of the most
fully imagined places in American literature. Taken together, these
novels and stories form a masterwork of American prose: straightforward,
spare, and lyrical. Now, for the first time, in an edition prepared in
consultation with the author, Library of America is presenting the
complete story of Port William in the order of narrative chronology.
This first volume, which spans from the Civil War to World War II,
gathers the novels Nathan Coulter (1960, revised 1985), A Place on
Earth (1967, revised 1983), A World Lost (1996), and Andy Catlett:
Early Travels (2006), along with twenty-three short stories, among them
such favorites as "Watch With Me," "Thicker than Liquor," and "A
Desirable Woman." It also features a newly researched chronology of
Berry's life and career, a map and a Port William Membership family
tree, and helpful notes.
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.