We're members of each other-all of us-everything. The difference is not whether you are or not, but whether you know you are or not. Because we're all under each other's influence. We're all are affected by one another's others lives and decisions. And there is no escape from this membership.

Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer.

The author of more than forty works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, Berry has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

Born in 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky, his writing is grounded in the notion that one's work ought to be rooted in and responsive to one's place.

His nonfiction serves as an extended exploration of the good life: sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, fidelity, frugality, and reverence.