🎯 Where Should I Start?
ⓘ About Wendell Berry
Born on August 5, 1934, Wendell Berry is a well known and highly respected 82-year old novelist, environmental activist and poet. He also has made his impression in the field of farming and also as a cultural critic. He is certainly a prolific writer and has written a number of short stories, poems, novels and also essays on a variety of subjects. He has over the last few decades been able to leave behind a rich treasure of writings which according to critics will continue to inspire and interest generations of readers for many decades to come. It would also be pertinent to mention here that Berry has rightly and deservingly become a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He also is the recipient of the famous National Humanities Medal.
All Book Series by Wendell Berry
Patriotism and the American Land
Book 2 of 4 · published 2002 Anthology · Richard Nelson
The Open Space of Democracy
Book 3 of 4 · published 2004 Anthology · Terry Tempest Williams
The Poetry of William Carlos Williams of Rutherford
Book 32 of 41 · published 2011
The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry
Book 37 of 41 · published 2017
Another Day: Sabbath Poems, 2013-2023
Latest in the series · book 41 of 41 · published 2024
Distant Neighbors: The Selected Letters of Wendell Berry & Gary Snyder
Book 28 of 39 · published 2014
A Conversation Between Wendell Berry and Wes Jackson
Book 31 of 39 · published 2017
Conversations with Jorge Luis Borges
Series opener · book 1 of 97 · published 1969
Conversations with Louise Erdrich and Michael Dorris
Book 41 of 97 · published 1994
Conversations with Jimmy Carter
Latest in the series · book 97 of 97 · published 2023
Listening for God Reader, Vol. 1
Series opener · book 1 of 4 · published 1994 Anthology · Flannery O'Connor,Raymond Carver,Alice Walker,Garrison Keillor,Annie Dillard,Richard Rodríguez,Patricia Hampl,Peter Hawkins,Frederick Buechner,Paula J. Carlson,Peter S. Hawkins
Listening for God, Vol. 2
Book 2 of 4 · published 1996 Anthology · Anne Tyler,John Updike,Tobias Wolff,Gail Godwin,Henry Louis Gates Jr.,Kathleen Norris,Paula J. Carlson,Peter S. Hawkins,Carol Bly,Andrew Dubus
Listening for God, Vol. 3
Book 3 of 4 · published 2000 Co-authored · Tillie Olsen,John Cheever,Louise Erdrich,Mary Gordon,Tess Gallagher,Reynolds Price,Oscar Hijuelos,Paula J. Carlson,Peter S. Hawkins
Listening For God, Vol. 4
Latest in the series · book 4 of 4 · published 2002 Anthology · Robert Olen Butler,Allegra Goodman,James Baldwin,Kent Haruf,SueMiller,Doris Betts,Paula J. Carlson,Peter S. Hawkins,MichaelMalone,Alice Elliot Dark
Frog Pond Philosophy: Essays on the Relationship Between Humans and Nature
Series opener · book 1 of 26 · published 1970 Anthology · Frederick L. Kirschenmann,Strachan Donnelley,Ceara Donnelley,Bruce Jennings
Religion and Sustainable Agriculture: World Spiritual Traditions and Food Ethics
Book 2 of 26 · published 1970 Anthology · Norman Wirzba,Vandana Shiva,Pramod Parajuli,Pankaj Jain,A. Whitney Sanford,Todd Levasseur,Mark H. Dixon,Ragan Sutterfield,Maximilian Abouleish-Boes,Yigal Deutscher,Leonor Hurtado,Tristan Reader,Eston Pembamoyo,Michael Lemons,Terrol Johnson,Jagannath Adhikari,Anna Peterson,Raymond F. Person
Living Sustainably: What Intentional Communities Can Teach Us about Democracy, Simplicity, and Nonviolence
Book 3 of 26 · published 1970 Anthology · Whitney Sanford
Wendell Berry and Higher Education: Cultivating Virtues of Place
Book 4 of 26 · published 1970 Anthology · Jeffrey Bilbro,Jack R. Baker
Virtues of Renewal: Wendell Berry's Sustainable Forms
Book 5 of 26 · published 1970 Anthology · Jeffrey Bilbro
The Soil and Health: A Study of Organic Agriculture
Book 6 of 26 · published 1972 Anthology · Albert Howard Sir
The Violence of the Green Revolution: Third World Agriculture, Ecology, and Politics
Book 7 of 26 · published 1991 Anthology · Vandana Shiva
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Book 8 of 26 · published 2000 Anthology · Vandana Shiva
From the Farm to the Table: What All Americans Need to Know about Agriculture
Book 9 of 26 · published 2006 Anthology · Gary Holthaus
Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien
Book 10 of 26 · published 2006 Anthology · Tom Shippey,Jonathan Evans,John Elder,Matthew Dickerson
Agrarianism and the Good Society: Land, Culture, Conflict, and Hope
Book 11 of 26 · published 2007 Anthology · Eric T. Freyfogle
Wendell Berry: Life and Work
Book 12 of 26 · published 2007 Anthology · Jason Peters
The Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse
Book 13 of 26 · published 2007 Anthology · Gene Logsdon
The Virtues of Ignorance: Complexity, Sustainability, and the Limits of Knowledge
Book 14 of 26 · published 2008 Anthology · Wes Jackson,Bill Vitek
Learning Native Wisdom: What Traditional Cultures Teach Us about Subsistence, Sustainability, and Spirituality
Book 15 of 26 · published 2008 Anthology · Gary Holthaus
Beyond Biotechnology: The Barren Promise of Genetic Engineeringby Craig Holdrege
Book 16 of 26 · published 2008 Anthology · Craig Holdrege
Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: The Environmental Vision of C.S. Lewis
Book 17 of 26 · published 2008 Anthology · David L. O'Hara,Matthew Dickerson
Wendell Berry and Religion: Heaven's Earthly Life
Book 18 of 26 · published 2009 Anthology · Norman Wirzba,L. Roger Owens,Joel Shuman
Cultivating an Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher
Book 19 of 26 · published 2010 Anthology · Frederick L. Kirschenmann,Constance L. Falk
The Agrarian Vision: Sustainability and Environmental Ethics
Book 20 of 26 · published 2010 Anthology · Paul B. Thompson
The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton
Book 21 of 26 · published 2011 Anthology · Monica Weis
The Achievement of Wendell Berry: The Hard History of Love
Book 22 of 26 · published 2011 Anthology · Fritz Oehlschlaeger
Fields of Learning: The Student Farm Movement in North America
Book 23 of 26 · published 2011 Anthology · Frederick L. Kirschenmann,Laura Sayre,Sean Clark
Growing Stories from India: Religion and the Fate of Agriculture
Book 24 of 26 · published 2011 Anthology · Vandana Shiva,A. Whitney Sanford
The Vandana Shiva Reader
Book 25 of 26 · published 2014 Co-authored · Vandana Shiva
Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up: Harnessing Real-World Experience for Transformative Change
Latest in the series · book 26 of 26 · published 2016 Anthology · Anthony Flaccavento
Odd Angles of Heaven: Contemporary Poetry by People of Faith
Book 2 of 12 · published 1994
Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction
Book 7 of 12 · published 2007
Following the Call: Living the Sermon on the Mount Together
Latest in the series · book 12 of 12 · published 2021
? Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Wendell Berry?
Born on August 5, 1934, Wendell Berry is a well known and highly respected 82-year old novelist, environmental activist and poet. He also has made his impression in the field of farming and also as a cultural critic. He is certainly a prolific writer and has written a number of short stories, poems, novels and also essays on a variety of subjects.
Which Wendell Berry series should I start with?
The best place to start is the Port William series, the earliest of Wendell Berry's multi-book series: it opens with Nathan Coulter (1960) and runs to 12 books across 1960–2025, ending with Marce Catlett (2025). Wendell Berry's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.
How many books has Wendell Berry written?
Wendell Berry has 243 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1960 and 2025. 146 of them belong to 6 named series — the largest being the Culture of the Land series with 26 books — and 97 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.
In what order should Wendell Berry's series be read?
Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. Wendell Berry's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Port William (1960–2025, 12 books), Port William Membership (1966–2022, 3 books) and Culture of the Land (1970–2016, 26 books), plus 1 more.
How are Wendell Berry's books organised into series?
This guide splits Wendell Berry's 243 books into 6 named series and 97 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Culture of the Land (26 books, 1970–2016); Port William (12 books, 1960–2025); New Patriotism (4 books, 2001–2006); Port William Membership (3 books, 1966–2022); Literary Conversations (97 books, 1969–2023), plus 1 further series.