Wendell Berry, Kentucky Poet and Farmer Who Loved God's Creation, Dies at 92

Wendell Berry died Monday, August 31, at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky. He was 92.

Berry was a poet, novelist, and farmer who spent more than six decades working the land at Lanes Landing Farm in Henry County. He authored more than 50 books of poetry, fiction, and essays. His work centered on rural life, sustainable farming, and the responsibility of communities to care for the places they inhabit.

Born in Louisville in 1934, Berry was baptized at New Castle Baptist Church and attended Port Royal Baptist Church. He called himself a "marginal" or "forest" Christian, preferring to walk in the woods on Sunday mornings rather than sit in a pew. But his writing drew directly from Scripture, connecting care for the earth to God's creative work.

His 1977 book, "The Unsettling of America," challenged industrial farming and argued that agriculture should build culture, not consume it. He promoted what he called a "Christian economy," rooted in households that produce and care rather than consume and discard.

Berry's novels often featured the fictional town of Port William, where broken characters tried to live out biblical truth in daily life. His Sabbath poems, written while walking his Kentucky land, reflected a deep, quiet faith.

He was politically unusual. Conservatives admired his defense of family, local community, and tradition. Progressives valued his opposition to corporate agriculture and environmental destruction. President Barack Obama awarded him the National Humanities Medal in 2011.

Berry spoke out against the Vietnam War, marched against a Washington power plant, and opposed abortion. He also challenged the church to take seriously its call to steward creation rather than exploit it.

"What Christians offer," he once told Christianity Today, "is an understanding that the world is not ours, that we are not the ones that give things value."

He is survived by his wife, Tanya, and their two children, Mary and Pryor.