Overview

First published in 1972, ""Think Little"" is cultural critic and agrarian Wendell Berry at his best- prescient about the dire environmental consequences of our mentality of greed and exploitation, yet hopeful that we will recognize war and oppression and pollution not as separate issues, but aspects of the same. ""Think Little"" is presented here alongside one of Berry's most popular and personal essays, ""A Native Hill."" This gentle essay of recollection is told alongside a poetic lesson in geography, as Berry explains at length and in detail, that what he stands for is what he stands on. Each palm-size book in the Counterpoints series is meant to stay with you, whether safely in your pocket or long after you turn the last page. From short stories to essays to poems, these little books celebrate our most-beloved writers, whose work encapsulates the spirit of Counterpoint Press- cutting-edge, wide-ranging, and independent.

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9781640091733

Table of Contents

Reviews

Praise for A Continuous Harmony This book is broad and leisurely and important. Something like the river itself on which Wendell Berry lives. It is full of wide and flowing thoughts and one thing leads to another in the manner that nature intended--or used to. The language ranges from the grave and beautiful to the sharp and specific, depending on the need to express the vast variety of subjects he presents. --The Nation Praise for The World-Ending Fire New & Noteworthy (The New York Times Book Review) A Best Book of the Year (Kirkus Reviews) One of the Best Books of the Year--So Far (Garden & Gun) Berry reminds us that to take small solutions off the table is also a kind of giving up. Some conservationists believe that because ecological problems are structural, there is no point in growing and cooking your own food, in setting down roots in a community, in being kind to your neighbors . . . You may as well drive as much as you want, waste paper towels, and buy meat from corporations that keep pigs in excrement-coated cages. Berry reminds us that to live this way is to forfeit our souls. It is important--no matter what is going on at a macro level--to be kind to your family, your neighbors and the land. --Colette Shade, The New Republic America's greatest philosopher on sustainable life and living. --John Warner, Chicago Tribune These works are mostly about small-town America, and mostly set on Berry's farm at Lane's Landing, once a riverboat stop on the Kentucky River near Port Royal, Kentucky. But not one word stoops to smug nostalgia. He is instead trying to prove that science and economics happen in a place: he draws endlessly and non-repetitively on the deep well of the lived truth of farm life, which delivers up sweet, clear lines of poetry and local lore and a kind of immediate authenticity . . . In writing about the fate of the natural world, Berry is a prophet of the domestic. These essays are about how to make a household here on Earth. That project is made of the 'unrelentingly practical' things that can be done and that give us hope. Feel the dirt under your feet. You have the power. --Dean Kuipers, Los Angeles Review of Books It's no great observation to note that we live in an incredibly polarized time, but, curiously, Berry doesn't fit neatly into the conservative or liberal camp. There is just enough in his writing to both satisfy and provoke those of all ideological allegiances. Thanks to the Library of America's efforts to reissue his writings beginning with the first half of his Port William novels and stories as well as his long-time publisher Counterpoint releasing The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry, a collection of his non-fiction edited by the aforementioned Kingsnorth, it's never been easier to find a place to start . . . In these times we could all use his patient instruction. --Jonathan Foiles LCSW, Psychology Today The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry is a selection of 31 essays spanning five decades of his works, and it could not have come at a better time as our nation thrashes about in search of a voice of reason. Who better than Berry to explain to us 'who we are, where we are, and what we must do to live'? . . . [It] ought to be required reading in every classroom . . . Wendell Berry is our National Guardian Angel! --Richard Horan, The Christian Science Monitor Wendell Berry is the poet laureate of America's farmland. . . . his writing has plenty of relevance: his scathing views on the chasm between what we need and what we consume are persuasive, as is his observation that change is often mistaken for progress. --DJ Taylor, The Guardian Whether you're new to the words of Wendell Berry or a longtime fan of this Kentucky poet, farmer, and land-protector, you'll want to add this tome of unforgettable, earth-moving Southern outdoors writing to the shelf. --CJ Lotz, Garden & Gun [Berry] speaks out powerfully and poignantly on behalf of family farmers, their land, and their small towns. His spiritual vision of life is informed by a deep love of nature, a profound regard for the details of place, a respect for small-scale economies, and an advocacy of wise stewardship of the earth. Paul Kingsnorth chose the 31 essays for this handsome collection as ample evidence of Berry's inspiring defense of character qualities like rugged individualism, diligence, loyalty, and reverence for nature. --Frederic Brussat and Patricia Campbell Carlson, Spirituality & Practice Compelling, luminous ... our modern-day Thoreau. He is unlike anybody else writing today. He writes at least as well as George Orwell and has an urgent message for modern industrial capitalism ... nobody can risk ignoring him. --Andrew Marr, New Statesman A fascinating tribute to the life of the land ... Berry's writings are timelier than ever. --Laura Garmeson, Financial Times A pleasing selection of essays from the lifelong farmer and award-winning writer . . . A great place to start for those who are not familiar with Berry's work; for those who are, it will be a nostalgic stroll down a rural, wooded Memory Lane. In this day and age, his writings are must-reads. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Wendell Berry's admirers--a loyal band several generations deep--may blink at the subtitle of this selection of his essays. 'Essential? What's not essential?' To read or reread these pieces is, however, to warmly affirm editor Kingsnorth. Berry is the philosopher and the prophet of agriculture, community, stability, and friendship, and there is nothing sentimental or utopian anywhere in his advocacy of those things. --Ray Olson, Booklist (starred review) Berry's graceful essays have long been models of eloquence, insight, and conviction . . . Newcomers will find the works exceptionally timely, and the book as a whole a thoughtful introduction to Berry's writing. --Publishers Weekly This collection sees the American published on these islands for the first time, and now he has finally stepped ashore, it's worth getting to know him ... Berry overturns plenty of thoughtful topsoil on environmental issues with a precise pen, and clears any thicket of cosy consensus with a clear eye and cutting hand. --NJ McGarrigle, Irish Times [T]he welcome voice of a gentle radical . . . Wendell Berry's writings, for half a century, have examined the gulf between what we're capable of doing and what we ought to do. That gulf keeps getting bigger, and still the message goes unheeded. --Matt Sturrock, The Times Literary Supplement

Praise for Think Little Glitter Guide, 1 of the 10 Books We're Most Excited About Reading This Year Glitter Guide, Book On Climate Change To Read This Earth Day This book speaks a lot about how we think on a macro level, but it is also about the importance of focusing on what we can do on a smaller scale-things like planting a garden and growing your own food . . . Connecting with the earth is very important to me. --Nicole Richie, Vogue Wendell Berry is Kentucky's gift to the literary world. -The Courier-Journal (Louisville), 1 of Louisville's 10 Best Reads for the Bookworm in Your Life Praise for A Continuous Harmony This book is broad and leisurely and important. Something like the river itself on which Wendell Berry lives. It is full of wide and flowing thoughts and one thing leads to another in the manner that nature intended-or used to. The language ranges from the grave and beautiful to the sharp and specific, depending on the need to express the vast variety of subjects he presents. -The Nation Praise for The World-Ending Fire New & Noteworthy (The New York Times Book Review) A Best Book of the Year (Kirkus Reviews) One of the Best Books of the Year-So Far (Garden & Gun) Berry reminds us that to take small solutions off the table is also a kind of giving up. Some conservationists believe that because ecological problems are structural, there is no point in growing and cooking your own food, in setting down roots in a community, in being kind to your neighbors . . . You may as well drive as much as you want, waste paper towels, and buy meat from corporations that keep pigs in excrement-coated cages. Berry reminds us that to live this way is to forfeit our souls. It is important-no matter what is going on at a macro level-to be kind to your family, your neighbors and the land. -Colette Shade, The New Republic America's greatest philosopher on sustainable life and living. -John Warner, Chicago Tribune These works are mostly about small-town America, and mostly set on Berry's farm at Lane's Landing, once a riverboat stop on the Kentucky River near Port Royal, Kentucky. But not one word stoops to smug nostalgia. He is instead trying to prove that science and economics happen in a place: he draws endlessly and non-repetitively on the deep well of the lived truth of farm life, which delivers up sweet, clear lines of poetry and local lore and a kind of immediate authenticity . . . In writing about the fate of the natural world, Berry is a prophet of the domestic. These essays are about how to make a household here on Earth. That project is made of the 'unrelentingly practical' things that can be done and that give us hope. Feel the dirt under your feet. You have the power. -Dean Kuipers, Los Angeles Review of Books It's no great observation to note that we live in an incredibly polarized time, but, curiously, Berry doesn't fit neatly into the conservative or liberal camp. There is just enough in his writing to both satisfy and provoke those of all ideological allegiances. Thanks to the Library of America's efforts to reissue his writings beginning with the first half of his Port William novels and stories as well as his long-time publisher Counterpoint releasing The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry, a collection of his non-fiction edited by the aforementioned Kingsnorth, it's never been easier to find a place to start . . . In these times we could all use his patient instruction. -Jonathan Foiles LCSW, Psychology Today The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry is a selection of 31 essays spanning five decades of his works, and it could not have come at a better time as our nation thrashes about in search of a voice of reason. Who better than Berry to explain to us 'who we are, where we are, and what we must do to live'? . . . [It] ought to be required reading in every classroom . . . Wendell Berry is our National Guardian Angel! -Richard Horan, The Christian Science Monitor Wendell Berry is the poet laureate of America's farmland. . . . his writing has plenty of relevance: his scathing views on the chasm between what we need and what we consume are persuasive, as is his observation that change is often mistaken for progress. -DJ Taylor, The Guardian Whether you're new to the words of Wendell Berry or a longtime fan of this Kentucky poet, farmer, and land-protector, you'll want to add this tome of unforgettable, earth-moving Southern outdoors writing to the shelf. -CJ Lotz, Garden & Gun [Berry] speaks out powerfully and poignantly on behalf of family farmers, their land, and their small towns. His spiritual vision of life is informed by a deep love of nature, a profound regard for the details of place, a respect for small-scale economies, and an advocacy of wise stewardship of the earth. Paul Kingsnorth chose the 31 essays for this handsome collection as ample evidence of Berry's inspiring defense of character qualities like rugged individualism, diligence, loyalty, and reverence for nature. -Frederic Brussat and Patricia Campbell Carlson, Spirituality & Practice Compelling, luminous ... our modern-day Thoreau. He is unlike anybody else writing today. He writes at least as well as George Orwell and has an urgent message for modern industrial capitalism ... nobody can risk ignoring him. -Andrew Marr, New Statesman A fascinating tribute to the life of the land ... Berry's writings are timelier than ever. -Laura Garmeson, Financial Times A pleasing selection of essays from the lifelong farmer and award-winning writer . . . A great place to start for those who are not familiar with Berry's work; for those who are, it will be a nostalgic stroll down a rural, wooded Memory Lane. In this day and age, his writings are must-reads. -Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Wendell Berry's admirers-a loyal band several generations deep-may blink at the subtitle of this selection of his essays. 'Essential? What's not essential?' To read or reread these pieces is, however, to warmly affirm editor Kingsnorth. Berry is the philosopher and the prophet of agriculture, community, stability, and friendship, and there is nothing sentimental or utopian anywhere in his advocacy of those things. -Ray Olson, Booklist (starred review) Berry's graceful essays have long been models of eloquence, insight, and conviction . . . Newcomers will find the works exceptionally timely, and the book as a whole a thoughtful introduction to Berry's writing. -Publishers Weekly This collection sees the American published on these islands for the first time, and now he has finally stepped ashore, it's worth getting to know him ... Berry overturns plenty of thoughtful topsoil on environmental issues with a precise pen, and clears any thicket of cosy consensus with a clear eye and cutting hand. -NJ McGarrigle, Irish Times [T]he welcome voice of a gentle radical . . . Wendell Berry's writings, for half a century, have examined the gulf between what we're capable of doing and what we ought to do. That gulf keeps getting bigger, and still the message goes unheeded. -Matt Sturrock, The Times Literary Supplement

Praise for A Continuous Harmony This book is broad and leisurely and important. Something like the river itself on which Wendell Berry lives. It is full of wide and flowing thoughts and one thing leads to another in the manner that nature intended-or used to. The language ranges from the grave and beautiful to the sharp and specific, depending on the need to express the vast variety of subjects he presents. -The Nation Praise for The World-Ending Fire New & Noteworthy (The New York Times Book Review) A Best Book of the Year (Kirkus Reviews) One of the Best Books of the Year-So Far (Garden & Gun) Berry reminds us that to take small solutions off the table is also a kind of giving up. Some conservationists believe that because ecological problems are structural, there is no point in growing and cooking your own food, in setting down roots in a community, in being kind to your neighbors . . . You may as well drive as much as you want, waste paper towels, and buy meat from corporations that keep pigs in excrement-coated cages. Berry reminds us that to live this way is to forfeit our souls. It is important-no matter what is going on at a macro level-to be kind to your family, your neighbors and the land. -Colette Shade, The New Republic America's greatest philosopher on sustainable life and living. -John Warner, Chicago Tribune These works are mostly about small-town America, and mostly set on Berry's farm at Lane's Landing, once a riverboat stop on the Kentucky River near Port Royal, Kentucky. But not one word stoops to smug nostalgia. He is instead trying to prove that science and economics happen in a place: he draws endlessly and non-repetitively on the deep well of the lived truth of farm life, which delivers up sweet, clear lines of poetry and local lore and a kind of immediate authenticity . . . In writing about the fate of the natural world, Berry is a prophet of the domestic. These essays are about how to make a household here on Earth. That project is made of the 'unrelentingly practical' things that can be done and that give us hope. Feel the dirt under your feet. You have the power. -Dean Kuipers, Los Angeles Review of Books It's no great observation to note that we live in an incredibly polarized time, but, curiously, Berry doesn't fit neatly into the conservative or liberal camp. There is just enough in his writing to both satisfy and provoke those of all ideological allegiances. Thanks to the Library of America's efforts to reissue his writings beginning with the first half of his Port William novels and stories as well as his long-time publisher Counterpoint releasing The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry, a collection of his non-fiction edited by the aforementioned Kingsnorth, it's never been easier to find a place to start . . . In these times we could all use his patient instruction. -Jonathan Foiles LCSW, Psychology Today The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry is a selection of 31 essays spanning five decades of his works, and it could not have come at a better time as our nation thrashes about in search of a voice of reason. Who better than Berry to explain to us 'who we are, where we are, and what we must do to live'? . . . [It] ought to be required reading in every classroom . . . Wendell Berry is our National Guardian Angel! -Richard Horan, The Christian Science Monitor Wendell Berry is the poet laureate of America's farmland. . . . his writing has plenty of relevance: his scathing views on the chasm between what we need and what we consume are persuasive, as is his observation that change is often mistaken for progress. -DJ Taylor, The Guardian Whether you're new to the words of Wendell Berry or a longtime fan of this Kentucky poet, farmer, and land-protector, you'll want to add this tome of unforgettable, earth-moving Southern outdoors writing to the shelf. -CJ Lotz, Garden & Gun [Berry] speaks out powerfully and poignantly on behalf of family farmers, their land, and their small towns. His spiritual vision of life is informed by a deep love of nature, a profound regard for the details of place, a respect for small-scale economies, and an advocacy of wise stewardship of the earth. Paul Kingsnorth chose the 31 essays for this handsome collection as ample evidence of Berry's inspiring defense of character qualities like rugged individualism, diligence, loyalty, and reverence for nature. -Frederic Brussat and Patricia Campbell Carlson, Spirituality & Practice Compelling, luminous ... our modern-day Thoreau. He is unlike anybody else writing today. He writes at least as well as George Orwell and has an urgent message for modern industrial capitalism ... nobody can risk ignoring him. -Andrew Marr, New Statesman A fascinating tribute to the life of the land ... Berry's writings are timelier than ever. -Laura Garmeson, Financial Times A pleasing selection of essays from the lifelong farmer and award-winning writer . . . A great place to start for those who are not familiar with Berry's work; for those who are, it will be a nostalgic stroll down a rural, wooded Memory Lane. In this day and age, his writings are must-reads. -Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Wendell Berry's admirers-a loyal band several generations deep-may blink at the subtitle of this selection of his essays. 'Essential? What's not essential?' To read or reread these pieces is, however, to warmly affirm editor Kingsnorth. Berry is the philosopher and the prophet of agriculture, community, stability, and friendship, and there is nothing sentimental or utopian anywhere in his advocacy of those things. -Ray Olson, Booklist (starred review) Berry's graceful essays have long been models of eloquence, insight, and conviction . . . Newcomers will find the works exceptionally timely, and the book as a whole a thoughtful introduction to Berry's writing. -Publishers Weekly This collection sees the American published on these islands for the first time, and now he has finally stepped ashore, it's worth getting to know him ... Berry overturns plenty of thoughtful topsoil on environmental issues with a precise pen, and clears any thicket of cosy consensus with a clear eye and cutting hand. -NJ McGarrigle, Irish Times [T]he welcome voice of a gentle radical . . . Wendell Berry's writings, for half a century, have examined the gulf between what we're capable of doing and what we ought to do. That gulf keeps getting bigger, and still the message goes unheeded. -Matt Sturrock, The Times Literary Supplement

Author Information

Wendell Berry is the author of fifty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He was recently awarded the Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Louis Bromfield Society Award. For over forty years he has lived and farmed with his wife, Tanya, in Kentucky.

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