I was excited to discover via The Amish Way that there is an Amish bishop in Ohio named David Kline who is also a published author. His books are:
Round of a Country Year Great Possessions Scratching the Woodchuck Letters from Larksong Great Possessions is available through my library and is introduced by (drumroll) Wendell Berry. I’ve just started reading it. A sample:
Probably the greatest difference between Amish farming and agribusiness is the supportive community life we have.
The Unsettling of America, p.42:
All the ancient wisdom that has come down to us counsels otherwise. It tells us that work is necessary to us, as much a part of our condition as mortality; that good work is our salvation and our joy; that shoddy or dishonest work is our curse and our doom. We have tried to escape the sweat and sorrow promised in Genesis—only to find that, in order to do so, we must forswear love and excellence, health and joy.
The opening paragraphs of Brad East’s review of Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine asks a good question, and provides a nice list of writers and thinkers that should be of interest to anyone who has benefited from Mr. Berry’s work:
Wendell Berry turned ninety-one last summer, and though he has not yet put down his pen, his life and career are nearing their end. For nearly seventy years Berry has been writing poems, novels, and essays—longer than many people’s whole lives.
Six new poems from Mr. Berry are up at Plough, wonderfully illustrated by Stephen Crotts.
I had a dream half awake
that led into the company of the dead who were alive still in the fields
we worked together, now purified
of our loss of one another.
Available online, with issue noted:
“Andy Catlett: Early Education” (Spring 2009) “The Art of Loading Brush” (Fall 2017) “The Branch Way of Doing” (Fall 2014) “Dismemberment” (Summer 2015) “Drought” (Winter 2012) “Fly Away, Breath” (Spring 2008) Unavailable online, with issue noted:
“A Conversation” (Winter 2020) “The Girl in the Window” (Winter 2010) “The Great Interruption” (Fall 2018) “A Long Ancestry” (Spring 2016) “A Night’s Trip” (Summer 2025) “One of Us” (Fall 2020) “A Rainbow (1945–1975–2021)” (Fall 2022) “The Stackpole Legend” (Spring 2024) “A Time and Times and the Dividing of Time” (Fall 2021) Some past issues of The Threepenny Review can be purchased for $10 plus shipping on their site.
Dear A—,
You asked me why I love Wendell Berry’s fiction. There’s no accounting for taste, as you’ve heard, but here’s my attempt.
First you should know what the man himself is about. Famously, he left behind a promising academic career to write and farm at his old home place. In the decades since he has become one of the leading lights of localism and agrarianism. His influence has been significant, touching everything from the literary world to family farms to the local food movement.