The Memory of Old Jack - by Wendell Berry (Paperback)

About the Book

In a rural Kentucky river town, "Old Jack" Beechum, a retired farmer, sees his life again through the shades of one burnished day in September 1952.

Bringing the earthiness of America's past to mind, "The Memory of Old Jack" conveys the truth and integrity of the land and the people who live it. Through the eyes of one man can be seen the values of Americans strived to recapture as we arrived at the next century.

Book Synopsis

Old Jack, born just after the American Civil War and dying in contemporary times, spends one beautiful September day in Port William, his home since birth, remembering.

The story tells of the most searing moments of Old Jack's life, particularly his debt to his sister Nancy and her husband Ben Feltner, Old Jack's model of what an honorable manhood and strength might be.

"Few novelists treat both their characters and their readers with the kind of respect that Wendell Berry displays in this deeply moving account . . . The Memory of Old Jack is a slab of rich Americana."--The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Wendell Berry is the author of fifty books of poetry, fiction, and essays. He was recently awarded the Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Louis Bromfield Society Award. For over forty years he has lived and farmed with his wife, Tanya, in Kentucky.