A day with Wendell Berry.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Editor's Note - Editorial

One of the highlights of my job last year was visiting the writer, farmer, and environmentalist Wendell Berry at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky. Early on a bright fall morning, I drove up the driveway to the old farmhouse, and his wife, Tanya, came to the door and let me in. She told me he was out with the sheep and getting a load of wood. Two of their grandchildren sat at the kitchen table, doing their homework. Tanya asked me if I wanted anything to eat, and when I demurred, she took me out to meet Wendell.

He's a tall man, with a deep, instantly recognizable voice, which I'd heard many times over the phone but never in person. He reminded me that he'd written for us back in the days of Erwin Knoll, my predecessor, and that Erwin was surprised when Wendell had asked to see the editing marks we'd made on his essay. I told him he was the only writer who'd ever insisted on that. Usually, we like to work with gloves on.

He wanted to show me around, so he took me in his pickup truck, along with his dog, to visit his daughter's winery. She and her husband gave me the tour of the impressive Smith-Berry Vineyard, and they handicapped Obama's chances along the way.

We stopped by the local hardware store, which sold copies of Berry's books, including Tobacco Harvest: An Elegy , which contains stunning photographs of his family and neighbors bringing in the crop.

We went over to see his brother, who used to be a state senator and was head of the largest tobacco co-op in the country. A lawyer, his brother smiled as he told me about the time he got a local kid off who tried haplessly to rob the town bank but was stymied when the teller told the boy to go right home.

Wendell also introduced me to his son, who was out plowing the family land, which looked like hard work...