Synopses & Reviews
Review
Praise for
Imagination in PlaceBerrys latest collection of essays is the reminiscence of a literary life. It is a book that acknowledges a lifetime of intellectual influences, and in doing so, positions Berry more squarely as a cornerstone of American literature . . . a necessary book. Here, Berrys place as the grandfather of slow food or the prophet of rural living is not questioned. This book ensures we understand the depth and breadth of Berrys art.” San Francisco Chronicle
[A] stellar collection . . . Berry turns over well-tilled, ever-fertile ground in Imagination in Place. His ideas flow beyond the channels of agrarian enthusiasm. Foodies, architects, transportation engineers, and other writers are adopting and adapting his concepts, perhaps leading to what he envisions will one day be an authentic settlement of our country.” The Oregonian
For those whove already come to admire Berrys moral clarity and closely argued critiques of contemporary society, Imagination in Place is a welcome chance to continue the conversation.” The Christian Science Monitor
Synopsis
In
Imagination in Place, we travel to the local cultures of several writers important to Berrys life and work, from Wallace Stegners great West and Ernest Gainess Louisiana plantation life to Donald Halls New England, and on to the Western frontier as seen through the Far East lens of Gary Snyder. The collection also includes portraits of a few of Americas most imaginative writers, including James Still, Hayden Carruth, Jane Kenyon, John Haines, and several others.
Berry laments todays dispossessed and displaced, those writers and people with no home and no citizenship, but he argues that there is hope for the establishment of new local cultures in both the practical and literary sense.
For Berry, what is local, fully imagined, becomes universal,” and these essays serve as a reminder that a place indelibly marks its literature just as it determines its watershed community of plants and animals.
Synopsis
"Berry's latest collection of essays is the reminiscence of a literary life. It is a book that acknowledges a lifetime of intellectual influences, and in doing so, positions Berry more squarely as a cornerstone of American literature . . . A necessary book. Here, Berry's place as the 'grandfather of slow food' or the 'prophet of rural living' is not questioned. This book ensures we understand the depth and breadth of Berry's art." ―San Francisco Chronicle " A] stellar collection . . . Foodies, architects, transportation engineers, and other writers are adopting and adapting Berry's] concepts, perhaps leading to what he envisions will one day be 'an authentic settlement of our country.'" ―The Oregonian
In Imagination in Place, we travel to the local cultures of several writers important to Berry's life and work, from Wallace Stegner's great West and Ernest Gaines' Louisiana plantation life to Donald Hall's New England, and on to the Western frontier as seen through the Far East lens of Gary Snyder. Berry laments today's dispossessed and displaced, those writers and people with no home and no citizenship, but he argues that there is hope for the establishment of new local cultures in both the practical and literary sense.
Berry laments today's dispossessed and displaced, those writers and people with no home and no citizenship, but he argues that there is hope for the establishment of new local cultures in both the practical and literary sense. Rich with Berry's personal experience of life as a Kentucky agrarian, the collection includes portraits of a few of America's most imaginative writers, including James Still, Hayden Carruth, Jane Kenyon, John Haines, and several others.