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To celebrate Wendell Berry’s 90th birthday, free copies of the Kentucky novelist and environmentalist’s collected writings will be given to every public library in his home state. Acclaimed worldwide as a writer and advocate for sustainable living, American novelist, poet, essayist, activist, cultural critic, and farmer Wendell Berry still identifies closely with his roots in rural Kentucky and the Port Royal farm where he has lived for more than sixty years, without television, computer, or cell phone.

Now, a gift marking Berry’s 90th birthday this month will bring his reflections on what he “value[s] most in the world: the life and health of the earth, the peacefulness of human communities and households” to readers throughout Kentucky. Every public library in the state will receive the definitive two-volume edition of Berry’s visionary essays published by Library of America.

The donation of books to each of Kentucky’s 202 public libraries is made possible by a generous gift from distinguished human rights litigator and environmental activist Edwin S. Matthews, Jr. This year’s gift will be followed next fall with the definitive Library of America edition of Berry’s novels and stories.

“What I Stand On: The Collected Essays of Wendell Berry 1969–2017” includes his landmark books “The Unsettling of America” and “Life Is a Miracle” along with generous selections from more than a dozen other books. Together the 77 collected essays reveal the evolution of Berry’s thoughts and concerns as a farmer, neighbor, citizen, teacher, activist, and ecological philosopher.

The Fall 2025 donation will provide “Port William Novels & Stories” Vols 1 and 2—Berry’s indelible portrait of rural America through the lens of Port William, Kentucky, one of the most fully imagined places in American literature.

“We appreciate the thoughtfulness and generosity of Edwin S. Matthews Jr. and Library of America in providing these works by one of Kentucky’s most distinguished writers to public libraries across the Commonwealth,” said Denise Lyons, Commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. “This donation ensures that Wendell Berry’s inspiring writings will remain available to our patrons for generations to come.”

Wendell Berry volumes to be donated to Kentucky libraries:

• Essays 1969–1990

Jack Shoemaker, editor

978-1-59853-606-5; LOA #316

• Essays 1993–2017

Jack Shoemaker, editor

978-1-59853-608-9; LOA #317

• Port William Novels & Stories: The Civil War to World War II

Jack Shoemaker, editor

978-1-59853-554-9; LOA #302

• Port William Novels & Stories: The Postwar Years

Jack Shoemaker, editor

978-1-59853-776-5; LOA #381