Wendell Berry, Kentucky-born author who advocated a simpler life, has died at 92

Wendell Berry, the Kentucky-born author and agrarian who celebrated farming communities and warned against industrial excess, has passed away at the age of 92. His daughter, Mary Berry, confirmed his death on Monday, stating that he had passed away peacefully at their home in Port Royal, Kentucky. Berry's work, deeply rooted in his native state, reflected his admiration for the uncluttered, deeply felt life he advocated.

Born and raised in a farming town during the Great Depression, Berry witnessed the unraveling of the seemingly immortal ties that bound his community. He believed that the old world, where people lived off the land and worked with their hands, was the true world, while the new world of cheap energy, money, and greed was mostly theater. In his novel "Andy Catlett: Early Travels," Berry wrote, "The world I knew as a boy was flawed, surely, but it was substantial and authentic."

Throughout his prolific writing career, Berry published over 40 books, including novels like "Nathan Coulter" and "A Place on Earth," and anthologies such as "A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997." His work extended far beyond Kentucky, influencing figures like Michael Pollan and Alice Waters. Pollan credited Berry with changing his life after he declared, "Eating is an agricultural act." Waters, a champion of local food systems, wrote an introduction to Berry's 1989 essay "The Pleasures of Eating."

Berry imagined a simpler time, a self-sustaining community where no one had to question the origin of their food or the names of their neighbors. In his 1977 manifesto "The Unsettling of America," he criticized the consolidation and mechanization of agriculture as a violation of the natural order. Despite his passing, Berry's vision of a simpler, more authentic life continues to inspire readers around the world.