Wendell Berry is a man of many talents: Poetry, creative writing, teaching and farming, just to name a few. Berry was born in 1934, in the small town of Henry County, Kentucky, where he also grew up. He is the oldest of four children. Berry 's father John was both a lawyer and a tobacco farmer. So Wendell grew up around the farm helping out where he could. Both his mother and father 's families had farmed in Henry County for at least five generations, so their family meant business. Once Berry finished school, he went on to attend the University of Kentucky. There he got his bachelors degree in English. After, he went directly to graduate school and completed his masters degree in 1957, also getting married to his wife Tanya Amyx that …show more content…
His first published novel was entitled Nathan Coulter. Nathan Coulter is a fiction narrative about a boy and his transition from childhood to adulthood in a Kentucky farming family. It was published in the spring of 1960. After publication, from 1962 to 1964 Berry went to teach English at the New York University 's, University College in the Bronx. Once he resigned, Berry went on to teach creative writing at the University of Kentucky, he resigned in 1977. Shortly after starting work at the University of Kentucky in 1965, Berry and his wife Tanya moved to a farm called Lanes Landing, with their two children. Lanes Landing was in Henry County, Kentucky, where Wendell 's farming and writing roots started. Lanes Landing began with corn and small grain. Over the years, it expanded to total 125 acres. Since their settlement, Wendell and his family have farmed and lived there, he uses the beautiful landscape and draws from his experiences there to help inspire his creative masterpieces. After being settled for a number of years, Berry went back to work in the English department at the University of Kentucky from 1987 to 1993. Overall, Berry has written roughly 25 books of poems, 16 volumes of essays, and 11 novels and short story collections. On his Wikipedia page the quote “one 's work ought to be rooted in and responsive to ones place.” It gives no credit to the person who said it, but I think the essence of it is true to Wendell 's