Wendell Berry Dead At 92

Wendell Berry, the celebrated writer, poet, farmer and environmental activist, died at the age of 92.

His daughter, Mary Berry, confirmed his passing Monday, and told Associated Press that he died in his home in Port Royal, Kentucky.

“There’s not enough I could say about him to do him justice,” she said.

Wendell Berry, the Kentucky-born author and agrarian who in poems, stories, novels and essays celebrated the farming communities of his native state and warned of the excesses and misjudgments of an industrial, commercialized society, has died. He was 92. https://t.co/8OBMLOHjdx

Berry, a proud Kentucky native, built a remarkable career around his passion for farming, community and the natural world. Through dozens of works of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, Berry became a respected voice on sustainable agriculture and conservation, leaving behind a body of work that reached generations of readers.

He often criticized modern industrial society for abandoning moral restraint, traditional family structures, and local community reliance in favor of hyper-individualism and endless economic growth.

Berry’s work consistently emphasized marriage, home life, and a deep connection to nature.

Wendell Berry was a great American writer and thinker. Some of us were lucky enough to have met and spoken with him. All of us were inspired by his work and his example. May his memory be a blessing for future generations of Americans who love our land. https://t.co/wBW4PjQOLF

Berry was a prolific writer who published more than 40 books, including the novels “Nathan Coulter” and “A Place on Earth,” as well as the poetry collection “A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997.”

He received numerous prestigious honors throughout his career, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1961 and the National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama in 2010. He was named the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Jefferson Lecturer in 2012 and received the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award in 2013. (RELATED: Dolly Parton To Be Honored With Massive Two-Day Star-Studded ‘Dollyfest’)

Berry became the first living writer inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2015 and received the National Book Critics Circle’s Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. His honors also included the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Aiken Taylor Award for his work in American poetry.

His words and ideas reached generations of readers and helped shape conversations about how people live, farm, and care for the world around them.

A cause of death was not disclosed.