Acclaimed worldwide as a writer and advocate for sustainable living, the novelist, poet, essayist, activist, cultural critic, and farmer Wendell Berry still identifies closely with his roots in rural Kentucky and the Port Royal farm where he has lived for more than sixty years.

Now, a gift marking Berry’s ninetieth birthday this August will bring his reflections on what he “value[s] most in the world: the life and health of the earth, the peacefulness of human communities and households” to readers throughout his home state.

What I Stand On: The Collected Essays of Wendell Berry 1969-2017

Thanks to a generous gift from distinguished human rights litigator and environmental activist Edwin S. Matthews, Jr., every public library in Kentucky—202 in all—will receive the definitive two-volume edition of Berry’s visionary essays published by Library of America. In addition, next fall, each library will receive volumes one and two of Berry’s Port William Novels & Stories.

“We appreciate the thoughtfulness and generosity of Edwin S. Matthews, Jr., and Library of America in providing these works by one of Kentucky’s most distinguished writers to public libraries across the Commonwealth,” said Denise Lyons, Commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. “This donation ensures that Wendell Berry’s inspiring writings will remain available to our patrons for generations to come.”

LOA editions of Berry’s Port William novels and stories

What I Stand On: The Collected Essays of Wendell Berry 1969–2017 includes his landmark books The Unsettling of America and Life Is a Miracle, along with generous selections from more than a dozen other works. The first and second volumes of his Port William novels and stories present an indelible portrait of rural America through the lens of Port William, KY, one of the most fully imagined fictional places in American literature.