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Port William
Port William Novels & Stories (The Civil War to World War II): Nathan Coulter / Andy Catlett: Early Travels / A World Lost / A Place on Earth / Stories
For more than fifty years, in eight novels and forty-two short stories, Wendell Berry (b. 1934) has created an indelible portrait of rural America through the lens of Port William, Kentucky, one of the most fully imagined places in American literature. The river town and its environs are home to generations of Coulters, Catletts, Feltners, and other families collectively known as the Membership, women and men whose stories evoke the earthbound pleasures and spiritual richness of what Berry has called the three-dimensional life, a time before industrial agriculture, pervasive technology, and unrestrained consumerism began to unravel the deep bonds of community that once sustained small-town America.
Taken together, these novels and stories form a masterwork of American prose: straightforward, spare, and lyrical. Now, in an edition prepared in consultation with the author, Library of America presents the complete Port William novels and stories for the first time in the order of their narrative chronology, revealing as never before the intricate dovetails and beguiling elegance of Berry’s larger construction. As one of his narrators puts it: “their stories are all added finally into one story . . . bound together in a many-stranded braid beyond the power of any awl to pick apart.”
This first volume, which spans from the Civil War to World War II, gathers the novels Nathan Coulter (1960, revised 1985), A Place on Earth (1967, revised 1983), A World Lost (1996), and Andy Catlett: Early Travels (2006), along with twenty-three short stories, among them such favorites as “Watch With Me,” “Thicker than Liquor,” and “A Desirable Woman.” It also features a newly researched chronology of Berry’s life and career, a map of Port William and a Membership family tree, and helpful notes.
Taken together, these novels and stories form a masterwork of American prose: straightforward, spare, and lyrical. Now, in an edition prepared in consultation with the author, Library of America presents the complete Port William novels and stories for the first time in the order of their narrative chronology, revealing as never before the intricate dovetails and beguiling elegance of Berry’s larger construction. As one of his narrators puts it: “their stories are all added finally into one story . . . bound together in a many-stranded braid beyond the power of any awl to pick apart.”
This first volume, which spans from the Civil War to World War II, gathers the novels Nathan Coulter (1960, revised 1985), A Place on Earth (1967, revised 1983), A World Lost (1996), and Andy Catlett: Early Travels (2006), along with twenty-three short stories, among them such favorites as “Watch With Me,” “Thicker than Liquor,” and “A Desirable Woman.” It also features a newly researched chronology of Berry’s life and career, a map of Port William and a Membership family tree, and helpful notes.
1231 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2018
196 people are currently reading
435 people want to read
About the author
Wendell Berry
297 books4,986 followersWendell Berry is a conservationist, farmer, essayist, novelist, professor of English and poet. He was born August 5, 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky where he now lives on a farm. The New York Times has called Berry the "prophet of rural America."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
January 7, 2019
I can say I mostly loved it Who can say why we like the things we read? We understand what kind of book will resonate with us, and that interest is the spark. We also think we can recognize the qualities of literary fiction that we prefer and that make something we're enthusiastic about rise above other books. For a time I've been nostalgic about my family's humble roots in rural Alabama. And for a time I've been reading and loving Wendell Berry's poetry, much of which is about the Kentucky landscape where he was born and where he still lives. Learning of Berry's stories and earlier novels collected in this handsome Library of America edition, I knew that reading them would connect with my own past. I told myself I was revisiting the pastoral, which is how I seemed to remember it. But, of course, neither Berry's world nor mine were quite that idyllic. Berry does, however, get it right. What he writes in his declarative, magically-spun sentences is authentically country.
I read only the 1st 8 stories and the novel Nathan Coulter, leaving 15 more stories and 3 novels for later. In the Port William saga that's Berry's fictional oeuvre, what I read runs from 1864 to 1941. These are stories of farmers working the land, living in the small community of Port William and the surrounding countryside hard by the Ohio River. This is small town America and family-owned farms before mechanization became common. Mules still pull plows, cows are milked by hand, and Nathan Coulter's family loads hay onto a wagon with pitchforks. Some of the stories are humorous. I felt like I've known the characters--I've certainly known people as plain yet as colorful and sagacious as these. The novel is told from the pov of Nathan between the ages of 5 and 14. A Bildungsroman, I suppose, a story of how he learns from those around him, particularly the men of his family.
In the final 2 chapters are Berry's larger themes. The worldview that the young Nathan learns might be considered existential. His father and grandfather already know what Nathan comes to realize, that a man spending his life working the land can, in the end, only do his damnedest. That's all a man can do. The stewardship of the land is passed from generation to generation, son replacing the father over and over, each working the dirt for a lifetime until one day it's shoveled in your face.
I'm gonna make myself wait before reading more, but I'm looking forward to learning what happens in Port William and to these good people in what remains of the book.
Reading again in April I'll read the next 11 stories and the short novel Andy Catlett: Early Travels.
I did that, reading the next 11 stories and the novel--novella, really, or long story--Andy Catlett. I still find it very good and realize that one reason is certainly that I'm immersed in industrial nostalgia because it's a rural world I remember visiting from time to time as a kid, just as Andy does. The novel recalls a few days between Christmas and the New Year of 1944 when he's 9 years old and his gone to his grandparents' homes to visit, his early travels. The voice in the novel is looking back from 40 years on, presumably 1984 when Andy is 49.
It's a kind of still point. It's paradisal as the older Andy Catlett remembers it. This remembered paradise combine with the remembered people to form an example from which all men, no matter the sophistication of their learning, may benefit. This is much the same perspective of the 1st novel in the volume, Nathan Coulter. It's going to be interesting to see if, in the later novels--there are 2 more, and longer--Berry allows the serpent into his garden. Though World War II is angrily boiling offstage and several characters we've been introduced to are involved, the world Andy sees is without conflict. What he remembers is a world of honesty and deep attachment. As Andy is on his way back home Berry has him reflect, "And now, as often before, I am reminded how grateful I am to have been there, in that time, with these I have remembered. I was there with them; they remain here with me. For in that little while Port William sank into me, becoming one with the matter and light, and the darkness of my mind, never again to be far from my thoughts, no matter where I went or what I did."
Berry is writing small town Kentucky as he remembers it and which he probably misses. He clearly admires the people he writes about and their lives on the land at that time. Berry has Andy express that admiration by reminding us that those who lived by the work of their hands, close to their animals and land and plants and the weather were living in the true world. Our new world, he says, is mostly theater. The world which came after this is a muddle of scenery and props which stretch belief. Nature seems distant.
And now in December I'm reading the final novel, A Place on Earth. (And concurrently, a small volume of poetry to Berry containing an extended essay, The Presence of Nature in the Natural World.)
I've finished A Place on Earth and this huge volume of novels and stories about Port William. The milieu of Berry's work presented in this Library of America volume is pastoral. A Place on Earth may be the most pastoral of these novels because what little conflict between characters Berry writes about has been replaced with the characters' relation to the land and community. It's 1945, and even in small Port William and environs the wider world of the war is being felt in loss and, finally, in the war's ending, even as the seasonal provinces of crops and weather foreground the characters' attention. Mostly the novel's made up of vignettes of those who inhabit this community and work the land around it. Though misfortune can occur, Berry's locale is almost an Eden and its population largely innocent and accepting. And big-hearted.
I tell you, I love this collection. These are people I've known in my life, and reading Berry is like visiting them.
I read only the 1st 8 stories and the novel Nathan Coulter, leaving 15 more stories and 3 novels for later. In the Port William saga that's Berry's fictional oeuvre, what I read runs from 1864 to 1941. These are stories of farmers working the land, living in the small community of Port William and the surrounding countryside hard by the Ohio River. This is small town America and family-owned farms before mechanization became common. Mules still pull plows, cows are milked by hand, and Nathan Coulter's family loads hay onto a wagon with pitchforks. Some of the stories are humorous. I felt like I've known the characters--I've certainly known people as plain yet as colorful and sagacious as these. The novel is told from the pov of Nathan between the ages of 5 and 14. A Bildungsroman, I suppose, a story of how he learns from those around him, particularly the men of his family.
In the final 2 chapters are Berry's larger themes. The worldview that the young Nathan learns might be considered existential. His father and grandfather already know what Nathan comes to realize, that a man spending his life working the land can, in the end, only do his damnedest. That's all a man can do. The stewardship of the land is passed from generation to generation, son replacing the father over and over, each working the dirt for a lifetime until one day it's shoveled in your face.
I'm gonna make myself wait before reading more, but I'm looking forward to learning what happens in Port William and to these good people in what remains of the book.
Reading again in April I'll read the next 11 stories and the short novel Andy Catlett: Early Travels.
I did that, reading the next 11 stories and the novel--novella, really, or long story--Andy Catlett. I still find it very good and realize that one reason is certainly that I'm immersed in industrial nostalgia because it's a rural world I remember visiting from time to time as a kid, just as Andy does. The novel recalls a few days between Christmas and the New Year of 1944 when he's 9 years old and his gone to his grandparents' homes to visit, his early travels. The voice in the novel is looking back from 40 years on, presumably 1984 when Andy is 49.
It's a kind of still point. It's paradisal as the older Andy Catlett remembers it. This remembered paradise combine with the remembered people to form an example from which all men, no matter the sophistication of their learning, may benefit. This is much the same perspective of the 1st novel in the volume, Nathan Coulter. It's going to be interesting to see if, in the later novels--there are 2 more, and longer--Berry allows the serpent into his garden. Though World War II is angrily boiling offstage and several characters we've been introduced to are involved, the world Andy sees is without conflict. What he remembers is a world of honesty and deep attachment. As Andy is on his way back home Berry has him reflect, "And now, as often before, I am reminded how grateful I am to have been there, in that time, with these I have remembered. I was there with them; they remain here with me. For in that little while Port William sank into me, becoming one with the matter and light, and the darkness of my mind, never again to be far from my thoughts, no matter where I went or what I did."
Berry is writing small town Kentucky as he remembers it and which he probably misses. He clearly admires the people he writes about and their lives on the land at that time. Berry has Andy express that admiration by reminding us that those who lived by the work of their hands, close to their animals and land and plants and the weather were living in the true world. Our new world, he says, is mostly theater. The world which came after this is a muddle of scenery and props which stretch belief. Nature seems distant.
And now in December I'm reading the final novel, A Place on Earth. (And concurrently, a small volume of poetry to Berry containing an extended essay, The Presence of Nature in the Natural World.)
I've finished A Place on Earth and this huge volume of novels and stories about Port William. The milieu of Berry's work presented in this Library of America volume is pastoral. A Place on Earth may be the most pastoral of these novels because what little conflict between characters Berry writes about has been replaced with the characters' relation to the land and community. It's 1945, and even in small Port William and environs the wider world of the war is being felt in loss and, finally, in the war's ending, even as the seasonal provinces of crops and weather foreground the characters' attention. Mostly the novel's made up of vignettes of those who inhabit this community and work the land around it. Though misfortune can occur, Berry's locale is almost an Eden and its population largely innocent and accepting. And big-hearted.
I tell you, I love this collection. These are people I've known in my life, and reading Berry is like visiting them.
January 12, 2020
Wendell Berry is the man. Doug got me this collection of books for Christmas and it really talks a lot about life, and death, and family. Berry discusses the decline of small town America over and over in his books, and as a guy reading his books in the middle of a cul-de-sac in the The Woodlands I get pretty convinced each time I need to quit my job and start farming. I'll let you all know what I decide.
January 1, 2023
This only took me 4 and a half years to read! But it’s the most complete treatment of Wendell Berry’s fiction I could have received. It’s crazy how consistent this guy is, and how he can write such long stories with so few plot points and still have me right there with him to the end (most of the time). I’ll miss having these stories as my go-to before bed.
May 30, 2022
Since I am reading all of Wendell Berry's Port William novels and short stories, any detailed reviews appear in the individual works they come from.
It's still amazing to me that I just couldn't finish A Place on Earth (which is one of the four full-length novels in this collection, which also includes 23 short stories) in 2017. The more I've thought about it, the more I think it's just that no other author I've read structures their fiction like Berry. A Place on Earth, in particular, seems like a lot of short vignettes, shifting from one character to another without any kind of transition at all. The chapters are strange, too. There are five parts, each with chapters, so it goes: Part One, Chapters 1-5; Part Two, Chapters 6-8; Part Three, Chapters 9-11; Part Four, Chapters 12-16; and Part Five, Chapter 17.
Then, each chapter has separately named sections with their own titles. For instance, Part One, Chapter 1, has 9 sections: "The Empty Store," "Missing," "The Card Game," etc. And each one of those feels like a short story. Certainly each chapter seems like at least a short story. So it's confusing. And it doesn't cohere for a long time; it does feel like a loosely organized set of stories about the various souls in the "Port William membership." It isn't until well into the book (clearly, further than I read in 2017) that a structure starts making sense, and by the end, you realize it really was a novel, even though many of the sections could make good short stories (and maybe were published as such).
Anyway, I probably already said some of that in my review of A Place on Earth, but I think it helps to articulate what it's like to read all these books. Reading them in narrative order (where specific book-length collections have stories from various years or decades, not necessarily in narrative order), is, as far as I'm concerned, a worthwhile project that makes each of the stories and novels more meaningful and coherent and resonant. I do recommend the project. There's nobody quite like Wendell Berry, and once I could sit still long enough to undertake this project, it has been extremely satisfying, a meaningful experience that has, I believe, changed the way I think about a lot of things.
Besides that, Berry writes a remarkably good turn of phrase, description, thought, sentence, paragraph, etc. For instance, in A Place on Earth, the consistently clueless Uncle Stanley is getting his hair cut by the resident barber, Jayber Crow, and they are discussing someone who committed suicide (since Uncle Stanley's job in retirement is as the gravedigger and church sexton). Uncle Stanley is obnoxiously sticking to his judgment that suicide is not only wrong, but nobody has the right to commit suicide. He is, therefore, insulting the person who committed suicide, and Jayber is offended, and argues with him.
It's still amazing to me that I just couldn't finish A Place on Earth (which is one of the four full-length novels in this collection, which also includes 23 short stories) in 2017. The more I've thought about it, the more I think it's just that no other author I've read structures their fiction like Berry. A Place on Earth, in particular, seems like a lot of short vignettes, shifting from one character to another without any kind of transition at all. The chapters are strange, too. There are five parts, each with chapters, so it goes: Part One, Chapters 1-5; Part Two, Chapters 6-8; Part Three, Chapters 9-11; Part Four, Chapters 12-16; and Part Five, Chapter 17.
Then, each chapter has separately named sections with their own titles. For instance, Part One, Chapter 1, has 9 sections: "The Empty Store," "Missing," "The Card Game," etc. And each one of those feels like a short story. Certainly each chapter seems like at least a short story. So it's confusing. And it doesn't cohere for a long time; it does feel like a loosely organized set of stories about the various souls in the "Port William membership." It isn't until well into the book (clearly, further than I read in 2017) that a structure starts making sense, and by the end, you realize it really was a novel, even though many of the sections could make good short stories (and maybe were published as such).
Anyway, I probably already said some of that in my review of A Place on Earth, but I think it helps to articulate what it's like to read all these books. Reading them in narrative order (where specific book-length collections have stories from various years or decades, not necessarily in narrative order), is, as far as I'm concerned, a worthwhile project that makes each of the stories and novels more meaningful and coherent and resonant. I do recommend the project. There's nobody quite like Wendell Berry, and once I could sit still long enough to undertake this project, it has been extremely satisfying, a meaningful experience that has, I believe, changed the way I think about a lot of things.
Besides that, Berry writes a remarkably good turn of phrase, description, thought, sentence, paragraph, etc. For instance, in A Place on Earth, the consistently clueless Uncle Stanley is getting his hair cut by the resident barber, Jayber Crow, and they are discussing someone who committed suicide (since Uncle Stanley's job in retirement is as the gravedigger and church sexton). Uncle Stanley is obnoxiously sticking to his judgment that suicide is not only wrong, but nobody has the right to commit suicide. He is, therefore, insulting the person who committed suicide, and Jayber is offended, and argues with him.
And so it has gone. Ignoring the obvious futility of it, Jayber accepted the challenge. And untouched by all the shrewd and telling logic of Jayber's questions, Uncle Stan has insulted both xx's life and Jayber's intelligence with as much passion as if suicides were threatening to overthrow the government. And Jayber has continued to ask the questions, at first with an exasperated patience, and then, as he dug deeper and grew tireder and sadder, with anger.That Uncle Stan has argued "with as much passion as if suicides were threatening to overthrow the government" is not only a very witty and, actually, amusing description of Uncle Stanley, but it's something many of us -- probably most people -- have at some time indulged in: getting increasingly enamored of our own opinion and argumentative prowess, and becoming even more attached to that opinion the more someone opposes it, so that we dig our heels in and make something we only half-believe ourselves into a Truth of the Universe. And Berry does this kind of summing up all the time; I kind of imagine his voice as a sophisticated and brilliant Earl Hamner, Jr., (who narrated The Waltons), one whose commentary always gives me a prick of previously-unarticulated recognition, or just unexpected agreement. I can't tell the number of times I just shake my head at the way Berry sums something up in the exactly perfect way, understated but just right.
August 5, 2023
Having dipped into the Port William stories, I went for a deeper dive with this collection, gathering the stories dealing with Civil War to mid-1940’s. A timely releases of a remarkable lifelong work.
I love that Berry’s Port William masterpiece runs so deep, yet it’s neither sweeping nor epic in the classic or popular literary sense. It goes big by staying small. I love the way Berry reflects - as he meditates, riffs and sculpts - the stories of small lives - like ours. Ordinary lives made up of the mundane, the marvellous, the mischievous, the immoral…the fraught, forgotten and fading… Human lives, sacred yet scant, profound yet overlooked…sublime, often in the collection of moments, or in a singular event, or thought, or afternoon… So much passes, unmarked, perhaps seemingly unremarkable. That Berry enshrines such fictional moments - a few are semi-biographical, as I understand it - with such authenticity is remarkable. I kept having to tell myself, “This didn’t actually, really happen!” Yet the detail, the tone, the texture, the settings are so matter-of-factly real I can’t help feeling like I’m reading history, not fiction.
Hard to do it all justice. Some reviewers say it’s slow at times, but that’s the investment you need to make in Berry to pay the rich dividends. Mortality, community, family, tragedy, work, friendship, the inner life, farming, hunting, fishing, war, providing, caring, learning, growing, fighting, forgiving, contending with the unexpected, bearing with the incompleteness of others, perhaps the ones you love the most…or the least…or both. It’s so masterful.
I didn’t read in one single go - it was sitting on the bedside table for a while but I became drawn into Port William - and particularly Andy Catlett. It’s at times warm, at times heartbreaking, other times hilarious. It swings across the spectrum. Just like life.
Although this collection has the blessing of Berry, I kept wondering if a little something is lost - as well as gained - by arranging the short stories and novellas in chronological order. It’s helpful to know where the stories fit in the longer history of Port William, but perhaps a little of the timelessness of the themes seems diminished. That said, it’s wonderful to have them in such quantity in one place. I’m eagerly awaiting Vol. 2, which I do hope will be published.
This volume is a permanent addition to my library - a book I’m proud to own and one I’ll return to. It’s about people and place and the passing of seasons. Sometimes you just need some time with your friends and family and neighbours in Port William. And, upon your return, Port William seems to stay with you, a gently present call to seek to look and live and love deeper in the mystery and quiet marvellousness of the place and the people around you, wherever you might find yourself.
I love that Berry’s Port William masterpiece runs so deep, yet it’s neither sweeping nor epic in the classic or popular literary sense. It goes big by staying small. I love the way Berry reflects - as he meditates, riffs and sculpts - the stories of small lives - like ours. Ordinary lives made up of the mundane, the marvellous, the mischievous, the immoral…the fraught, forgotten and fading… Human lives, sacred yet scant, profound yet overlooked…sublime, often in the collection of moments, or in a singular event, or thought, or afternoon… So much passes, unmarked, perhaps seemingly unremarkable. That Berry enshrines such fictional moments - a few are semi-biographical, as I understand it - with such authenticity is remarkable. I kept having to tell myself, “This didn’t actually, really happen!” Yet the detail, the tone, the texture, the settings are so matter-of-factly real I can’t help feeling like I’m reading history, not fiction.
Hard to do it all justice. Some reviewers say it’s slow at times, but that’s the investment you need to make in Berry to pay the rich dividends. Mortality, community, family, tragedy, work, friendship, the inner life, farming, hunting, fishing, war, providing, caring, learning, growing, fighting, forgiving, contending with the unexpected, bearing with the incompleteness of others, perhaps the ones you love the most…or the least…or both. It’s so masterful.
I didn’t read in one single go - it was sitting on the bedside table for a while but I became drawn into Port William - and particularly Andy Catlett. It’s at times warm, at times heartbreaking, other times hilarious. It swings across the spectrum. Just like life.
Although this collection has the blessing of Berry, I kept wondering if a little something is lost - as well as gained - by arranging the short stories and novellas in chronological order. It’s helpful to know where the stories fit in the longer history of Port William, but perhaps a little of the timelessness of the themes seems diminished. That said, it’s wonderful to have them in such quantity in one place. I’m eagerly awaiting Vol. 2, which I do hope will be published.
This volume is a permanent addition to my library - a book I’m proud to own and one I’ll return to. It’s about people and place and the passing of seasons. Sometimes you just need some time with your friends and family and neighbours in Port William. And, upon your return, Port William seems to stay with you, a gently present call to seek to look and live and love deeper in the mystery and quiet marvellousness of the place and the people around you, wherever you might find yourself.
January 12, 2023
The short stories of Port William have, as I expected, exceeded my expectations. It was a joy to meet such new characters as Ptolemy Proudfoot and Miss Minnie, as well as get to know some folks that I had only met in passing like Aurthur Rowanberry or The Milbys. For some reason, though, Burley Coulter always moves me so dramatically. His story, "Stand By Me," is exactly why Wendell Berry has such esteem in my eyes. Some of my best literary memories are reading from the collection of the great American short stories in high school or from a collection of Irish ghost stories that I bought in Coleraine. However, I think that the medium of the 'short story' is woefully overlooked in our age, and to great despair, because this form, to me, seem able to do much more than it should. Like the strength of an ant, I find that a short story can grip me in a nimble yet shocking way, unlike a novel, and maybe precisely due to its brevity. All that being said, Berry is among the masters of the short story, but that isn't surprising considering that his novels feel like a collection of parable-like short stories anyway. The real power of these stories is the transcendent threading together of them all in the mind of the reader which creates, like a cosmic loom, a story and history which is akin to memory itself. For this reason, Berry might deserve a place beside some of the great modernist literary projects in their attempts to portray time and immediate experience. Yet, perhaps not, because his project is nothing more than depicting something that has been happening since the formation of mankind.
Wow, this review got a little bit out of hand. All this to say, I loved the book. This edition itself is beautiful, and I hope that they will publish the second volume. It is worth noting, that I separately logged and reviewed the four individual novels from this edition as I read them earlier. I am logging this now only because I also finished this collection of short stories.
Highest recommendation to any Berry fan, though I would say that a certain order of reading would be valuable.
Wow, this review got a little bit out of hand. All this to say, I loved the book. This edition itself is beautiful, and I hope that they will publish the second volume. It is worth noting, that I separately logged and reviewed the four individual novels from this edition as I read them earlier. I am logging this now only because I also finished this collection of short stories.
Highest recommendation to any Berry fan, though I would say that a certain order of reading would be valuable.
March 21, 2019
I absolutely loved this outstanding edition of Berry's works. Each individual work earned five stars from me, but I'm specifically commenting here about this beautiful edition from Library of America. I love these books. They have great cloth covers and quality paper with sewn bindings that stand up to time. This collection of Berry's work, edited by his longtime editor Jack Shoemaker, collects his Port William stories up to World War II. Thus it very helpfully brings together four novels and a great number of short stories all in one place, and it helpfully places them in generally chronological order. A second important thing to note is that Berry wrote these books over many decades, but as Port William took firmer shape in his mind, he has revisited some of the earlier works (particularly Nathan Coulter, which was his first novel) to align them with some of the later developments. So having all of those latest revisions here means that this edition helps the reader to get Berry's fully developed and consistent depiction of Port William. And it also saves having to buy a number of different volumes to obtain all of the great material that is here. I look forward to reading this collection again, and it will certainly occupy a prominent place on my shelves for the rest of my life.
March 12, 2021
I often say I could live for a long stretch of time in _____, but often it is followed by an 'if' and 'when' - "...if I could _________" or "...when I ________." However, every time I finish a Port William, Kentucky novel or short story, there is no 'if'.
Okay okay, I guess there is an 'if' as it is Wendell Berry's most fully imagined places in American literature. Although, it's not just the place, so I guess there's a 'when' also. "When the characters are there for me to be living amongst them." He weaves such lives I want to be imagined witnessing, being a part of - laughing, smiling, crying, hoping, cherishing, and loving time, place, and the simplicity of land and humanity.
On the beach, on a porch, in front of a fireplace, propped up in a bed, this creative edited compilation of Wendell BerryWendell Berry's work meant endless hours of a sanative time spent in Port William.
Okay okay, I guess there is an 'if' as it is Wendell Berry's most fully imagined places in American literature. Although, it's not just the place, so I guess there's a 'when' also. "When the characters are there for me to be living amongst them." He weaves such lives I want to be imagined witnessing, being a part of - laughing, smiling, crying, hoping, cherishing, and loving time, place, and the simplicity of land and humanity.
On the beach, on a porch, in front of a fireplace, propped up in a bed, this creative edited compilation of Wendell BerryWendell Berry's work meant endless hours of a sanative time spent in Port William.
February 11, 2019
What an extraordinary writer Wendell Berry turns out to be! I knew his name as an environmental activist and essayist, but I'd never heard of his fiction until I came across this new Library of American collection of his Port William stories and novels at a small bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky. Berry is from that part of Kentucky and he grew up in a place very much like the fictional town of Port William that he writes about in this book. There's an elegiac quality to his writing that is all the more welcome in these days of relentless political warfare, and you can't help but fall in love with some of the characters that populate Port William and its surroundings. Past, present, and future are seamlessly intertwined throughout this volume, yet you find yourself sharing the deep ache of loss that Berry so clearly feels. Very highly recommended.
August 3, 2024
Despite the almost intimidating thousand pages and small print of this book, it was delightful to have a daily dose of exposure to the Port William stories these past weeks. There are three novels and some 23 short stories in this collection. The stories are linked yet you could pick any one and enjoy it as a singular literary experience. The author’s love for the land, its people with both their strengths and faults and the rural community bonds shines through each page. Like other readers I found myself happy to transport myself to the setting he created in such tender detail. I also appreciated his looking on experiences through the eyes of different generations. It will provoke thought for me about the values that we lose or maintain as we constantly move forward with new technologies.
May 22, 2018
A generous collection of Port William short stories and novels dealing with period up to the end of the world war two in 1945. Berry's themes are the land, the people who live on it and work it, and their kinship. It's a splendid world, and this particular connection gives you a deeper glimpse into the world of Port William by letting you follow the town and its inhabitants over the years. Highly recommended.
January 31, 2021
Thank you Mr. Berry for this most pleasurable reading experience. Though I started the 900 plus page book of Four Novels and Twenty Three short stories about 2 months ago, twice putting it down for extended periods of time, I left it halfway through. But to me the second half was much better than the first. So grateful to have discovered this wonderful author who with his simple prose took me to a sweet place on earth far away from the sad politics and pandemic of today.
January 24, 2025
What a joy to have spent 1000 pages traveling through history with Port William. I would not have wanted to live in that place and time, but it was the perfect to anecdote to not really wanting to be in my own place and time right now. I'll try to carry with me the dignity and the joy in carrying for the home and the living things around me. And take strength from the history of all those who have weathered so much before me. And I'll be reading all the rest!
March 2, 2018
I bought this book because of the Wendell Berry novels I'd read in the past, and was pleasantly surprised (although why I was surprised I have no idea) at the humour in his short stories and thoroughly enjoyed them. Berry's way of weaving stories together and retelling the same stories from different points of view is fascinating; I highly recommend this book.
December 25, 2018
The short stories and novels in this collection are all high-quality, some of them marvelously so. And this Library of America edition makes a worthy home for them: all the Port William stories in chronological order, with a family tree and map of the surrounding country. A volume to cherish and savor.
September 6, 2019
Amazing world that Berry creates in "Port William". I'm glad I chose to read these as an entire collection; there are so many themes that connect the different generations through time: family, loss, what it mean to be a "neighbor", sacrifice, and the attachment to land that Berry is known for. I'll be chewing on these stories for a while.
September 4, 2020
Great introduction to Berry
I had never heard of Wendell Berry before listening to “The Membership” podcast. This collection is a great introduction to Berry’s work. I feel in love with his style, wit and visual imagery. I am a better person for reading this work.
I had never heard of Wendell Berry before listening to “The Membership” podcast. This collection is a great introduction to Berry’s work. I feel in love with his style, wit and visual imagery. I am a better person for reading this work.
January 4, 2023
It took me over 2 years to read this collection, and it has been such a great read! It’s happy, sad, funny, depressing, and everything in between. It is an amazing collection of novels and stories and I highly recommend it.
January 20, 2023
Reading Wendell Berry is pure joy. I am always a bit sad when I come to the end of one of his books, but I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to experience his remarkable storytelling. Do yourself a favor and invite the Port William Membership into your life!
June 2, 2018
Pure gold! Berry is a national treasure. His characters are absolutely wonderful and his writing is exquisite and a joy to read.
January 10, 2021
Good collection of Wendell Berry's stories. Enjoyable.
February 20, 2021
Lovely way to read these Port William novels and stories: chronologically. Only goes to 1945, so I’m ready for volume two.
July 15, 2021
Took me three years. Each summer moving through the lives and work, the sorrow and laughter.
Few authors have really changed how I think and feel. Berry is one of them.
Few authors have really changed how I think and feel. Berry is one of them.
January 19, 2022
Wonderful
May 17, 2024
Brilliant writing. Very, very enjoyable reading. Wonderful lessons learned.
September 28, 2024
I love Wendell Berry. He’s so fantastic and I’d never heard of him. The Port William stories are just a marvel.
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December 28, 2024Beautifully written
I had just seen Valerie Perrin interviewed on La Grande Librairie. Now I want to read all her books. This one I couldn't put it down.
I had just seen Valerie Perrin interviewed on La Grande Librairie. Now I want to read all her books. This one I couldn't put it down.
January 9, 2026
Wendell Berry's Port William is teeming with struggles. Everything from hog slaughtering to delicate romances is detailed with skillful descriptions of human nature. Lying, loving, hiding, marrying, murdering and forgiving are believable, specific, and as vivid as if they happened last week.
Even the children are given the dignity of behaving badly, being jealous. Biting the hands that feed them. Parents & Uncles & Aunts are portrayed with variety and energy, patience, forgiveness and violent, irrational rage.
I will read the rest of the stories when I have a chance.
Loved all them so far. I had to return the book to the library, but I loved the stories about the 2 brothers adopted by their uncle, the story "Nearly to the Fair" about driving to the county fair in the new car, and of course "Watch With Me".
Even the children are given the dignity of behaving badly, being jealous. Biting the hands that feed them. Parents & Uncles & Aunts are portrayed with variety and energy, patience, forgiveness and violent, irrational rage.
I will read the rest of the stories when I have a chance.
Loved all them so far. I had to return the book to the library, but I loved the stories about the 2 brothers adopted by their uncle, the story "Nearly to the Fair" about driving to the county fair in the new car, and of course "Watch With Me".
May 27, 2020
If you are searching for a good book to read during this Covid-19 crisis, this is my recommendation -- or any of the collected short stories of Wendell Berry about his fictional Port William. I know some of my fascination with his writing is due to my many travels to Kentucky to visit my grandparents, one set of which lived on a tobacco farm in Bourbon County. However, his amazing writing and gift for crafting both the stories and the voices of the people who lived in and around Port Williams is nothing short of masterful. Those who only know him as a poet will enjoy his prose as well. And this window onto how people dealt with crises and everyday issues reminds us of a time when people tended to pitch in for each other, how families honored each other and took care of those in need.
September 3, 2020
Loved this book. While the novels were all excellent, some of the short stories blew me away. I laughed (a lot) and even teared up several times. One story in particular that I highly recommend is "Pray without Ceasing." I am still chewing on the depth of that story. Overall, I would rate this collection as one of my favorite reads of the past year.
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