Poet And Cultural Criticism In Wendell Berry's Life

Wendell Berry is an American poet and literary fictionist who mainly writes about agriculture, rural life, communities, outdoors and nature. “[He] has written at least twenty-five chapbooks of poems, sixteen volumes of essays, and eleven novels and short story collections” (Shetterly). He is an environmental activist, conservationist, and cultural critic. He is a supporter of Christian pacifism, which he clearly states in his book Blessed Are the Peacemakers: Christ's Teachings About Love, Compassion and Forgiveness (2005). Berry is deeply influenced by William Shakespeare and Henry David Thoreau, who are both poets. On August 5, 1934, in Henry County, Kentucky, Wendell Berry, the first of four, was born to John Marshall Berry and Virginia Erdman Berry. His father was a lawyer and tobacco farmer in Henry County, Kentucky. His family, on both sides, have been farming in Henry County for at least five generation (Wikipedia). …show more content…
Berry went to a secondary school called Millersburg Military Institute. He went to the University of Kentucky, where he earned a B.A. and M.A. in English (Wikipedia). He completed his M.A. in 1957 and married Tanya Amyx. Later on, he attended one of Stanford University's creative writing program. Nathan Coulter was published in April 1960. In 1961, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship took Berry and his family to Italy and France. When he came back to the States, for two years, he taught English at New York University, the Bronx location. In 1964, he began teaching creative writing at the University of