What I Stand On –The Collected Essays of Wendell Berry, 1969 – 2017
Jack Shoemaker, editor
The Library of America
Wendell Berry has been called “quintessentially American,” but the essays and book excerpts in this brilliant collection prove that he is much, much more. He is perhaps the best spokesperson for our planet, its natural resources and its diversity of species. His life work has been dedicated to what he values most: “the life and health of the earth, the peacefulness of human communities and households.”
The first volume contains Berry’s work from 1969 to 1990 and features The Unsettling of America, as well as excerpts from The Gift of Good Land, and What Are People For? The second volume contains essays from 1993-2017 and includes the complete text of Life Is A Miracle and essays from The Way Of Ignorance and Our Only World.
. . . the perfect gift for armchair naturalists and environmental science students alike.
His naturalist philosophy can be seen early on in this from The Long-Legged House (1969): “And that summer, I remember, I began to think of myself as living within rather than upon the life of the place. I began to think of my life as one among many, and one kind among many kinds. I began to see how little of the beauty and richness of the world is of human origin, and how superficial and crude and destructive–even self-destructive–is man’s conception of himself as owner of the land and the master of nature and the center of the universe.”
Inspiring and infinitely quotable, this beautiful boxed set of Berry’s best writings makes the perfect gift for armchair naturalists and environmental science students alike.
