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The Long-Legged House
First published in 1969 and out of print for more than twenty-five years, The Long-Legged House was award-winner Wendell Berry’s first collection of essays, the inaugural work introducing many of the central issues that have occupied him over the course of his career. Three essays at the heart of this volume—“The Rise,” “The Long-Legged House,” and “A Native Hill”—are essays of homecoming and memoir, as the writer finds his home place, his native ground, his place on earth. As he later wrote, “What I stand for is what I stand on,” and here we see him beginning the acts of rediscovery and resettling.
This volume contains original contents, with only slight revisions as might be desired. It gives readers the opportunity to read the work of this remarkable cultural critic and agrarian, and to delight in the prose of one of America’s greatest stylists.
The tyranny of charity --
The landscaping of hell : strip-mine morality in east Kentucky --
The nature consumers --
The loss of the future --
A statement against the war in Vietnam --
Some thoughts on citizenship and conscience in honor of Don Pratt --
The rise --
The long-legged house --
A native hill
This volume contains original contents, with only slight revisions as might be desired. It gives readers the opportunity to read the work of this remarkable cultural critic and agrarian, and to delight in the prose of one of America’s greatest stylists.
The tyranny of charity --
The landscaping of hell : strip-mine morality in east Kentucky --
The nature consumers --
The loss of the future --
A statement against the war in Vietnam --
Some thoughts on citizenship and conscience in honor of Don Pratt --
The rise --
The long-legged house --
A native hill
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
40 people are currently reading
620 people want to read
About the author
Wendell Berry
293 books4,917 followersWendell Berry is a conservationist, farmer, essayist, novelist, professor of English and poet. He was born August 5, 1934 in Henry County, Kentucky where he now lives on a farm. The New York Times has called Berry the "prophet of rural America."
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
July 24, 2023
What a treasure this was! I am an avid reader of Wendell Berry's fiction, especially his Port William stories and novels, but the previous book of his non-fiction essays that I read didn't affect me as greatly. My friend Wyndy pulled this out of a used book sale we attended and said "Do you want this?" So I brought it home and about a week ago decided to read it at bedtime.
The essays in this book were written between 1960 and 1968, and the first few were about what we humans are doing to our environment. He was warning us over 60 years ago about what is happening today, and decided that as an individual, returning to his own little patch of earth in Kentucky and being a good steward of that, was his best contribution.
The final three longer essays here are masterpieces of nature writing. "The Rise" is about a 6 mile canoe trip after rising water, and "The Native Hill" is about a hike through the woods near his home. But "The Long-Legged House" was about a rough cabin perched on the banks of a river. He called it simply The Camp. Imagine my thrill to discover the seeds of his Port William books here, before he had written any of them. I'm pretty sure his Uncle Curran was the inspiration for Burley Coulter, my favorite recurring character, and I know the long-Legged house was Burley's camp, and later Jayber Crow's final home.
This out-of-print book also gives us a mini biography of Berry; touching on his childhood, education, his years outside of Kentucky, and his determination to return home against the advice of the literary community he was part of. He discovered you CAN go home again, as long as you don't expect it to be exactly as you remember it.
I loved every word of this book and if you are a member of the Port William membership as I am, so will you. Find a copy if you can, I'm not lending mine out.
The essays in this book were written between 1960 and 1968, and the first few were about what we humans are doing to our environment. He was warning us over 60 years ago about what is happening today, and decided that as an individual, returning to his own little patch of earth in Kentucky and being a good steward of that, was his best contribution.
The final three longer essays here are masterpieces of nature writing. "The Rise" is about a 6 mile canoe trip after rising water, and "The Native Hill" is about a hike through the woods near his home. But "The Long-Legged House" was about a rough cabin perched on the banks of a river. He called it simply The Camp. Imagine my thrill to discover the seeds of his Port William books here, before he had written any of them. I'm pretty sure his Uncle Curran was the inspiration for Burley Coulter, my favorite recurring character, and I know the long-Legged house was Burley's camp, and later Jayber Crow's final home.
This out-of-print book also gives us a mini biography of Berry; touching on his childhood, education, his years outside of Kentucky, and his determination to return home against the advice of the literary community he was part of. He discovered you CAN go home again, as long as you don't expect it to be exactly as you remember it.
I loved every word of this book and if you are a member of the Port William membership as I am, so will you. Find a copy if you can, I'm not lending mine out.
October 28, 2023
Anyone who has had the privilege of visiting Port William will understand that Wendell Berry is a bit special.
This series of essays, written in the 1960's, confirm that. The eponymous story is just a delight to read. Who would have thought that both Andrew Marvell and sycamore warblers had such a huge influence on such a clever man? Big thanks to my friends Wyndy and Diane Barnes for unearthing this gem.
This series of essays, written in the 1960's, confirm that. The eponymous story is just a delight to read. Who would have thought that both Andrew Marvell and sycamore warblers had such a huge influence on such a clever man? Big thanks to my friends Wyndy and Diane Barnes for unearthing this gem.
March 11, 2008
Wendell Berry eloquently expounds on topics of government, ecology, morality, and the intersection of the three. Berry's conclusion: the key to the very survival of both our species and our planet is personal responsibility, and "obedience to the informed conscience." These essays, written in the 1960s, are only more relevant today, and worth reading for absolutely anyone.
Berry's ecological writing is beautifully descriptive but I am more drawn to passages that expose his underlying ethic; here are some examples of the latter:
From "The Landscaping of Hell: Strip-Mine Morality in East Kentucky":
"The strip-mine issue brings to light only one use of many monstrous possibilities created by the selfish use of principle--which is to say, contempt for principle--and by a moral climate in which a man can be, without discomfort to his conscience, only a coal operator, or only a doctor, or only a general." (23)
From "The Loss of the Future":
"It is certain, I think, that the best government is the one that governs least. But there is a much-neglected corollary: the best citizen is the one who least needs governing. The answer to big government is not private freedom, but private responsibility." (57)
From "Some Thoughts on Citizenship and Conscience...":
"Since there is no government of which the concern or the discipline is primarily the health either of households or of the earth, since it is in the nature of any state to be concerned first of all with its own preservation and only second with the cost, the dependable, clear response to man's moral circumstance is not that of law, but that of conscience. The highest moral behavior is not obedience to law, but obedience to the informed conscience even in spite of law." (78)
From "A Native Hill":
"We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride and greed the standard of our behavior toward the world--to the incalculable disadvantage of the world and every living thing in it. And now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has become clear. It is not only our own creativity--our own capacity for life--that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself is stifled.
"We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it." (196)
Berry's ecological writing is beautifully descriptive but I am more drawn to passages that expose his underlying ethic; here are some examples of the latter:
From "The Landscaping of Hell: Strip-Mine Morality in East Kentucky":
"The strip-mine issue brings to light only one use of many monstrous possibilities created by the selfish use of principle--which is to say, contempt for principle--and by a moral climate in which a man can be, without discomfort to his conscience, only a coal operator, or only a doctor, or only a general." (23)
From "The Loss of the Future":
"It is certain, I think, that the best government is the one that governs least. But there is a much-neglected corollary: the best citizen is the one who least needs governing. The answer to big government is not private freedom, but private responsibility." (57)
From "Some Thoughts on Citizenship and Conscience...":
"Since there is no government of which the concern or the discipline is primarily the health either of households or of the earth, since it is in the nature of any state to be concerned first of all with its own preservation and only second with the cost, the dependable, clear response to man's moral circumstance is not that of law, but that of conscience. The highest moral behavior is not obedience to law, but obedience to the informed conscience even in spite of law." (78)
From "A Native Hill":
"We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride and greed the standard of our behavior toward the world--to the incalculable disadvantage of the world and every living thing in it. And now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has become clear. It is not only our own creativity--our own capacity for life--that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself is stifled.
"We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it." (196)
November 14, 2023
For my own future reference, these essays were found in Recollected essays 1965-1980 by Wendell Berry. I did not finish all the essays in this collection, only the essays from The Long Legged House.
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December 28, 2021Wendell Berry is reverent and sincere. And also such a curmudgeon naturalist + anti-consumerist hippie—I love him for it. His concern with place and our relationship to it is personal, moral, and spiritual. This collection of essays invited me to reflect deeper on my responsibility to my home and the land it rests upon.
January 28, 2024
Wendell Berry’s nature writing resonates. I know what he says to be true. He is a beautiful soul.
Berry’s outlook-a rejection of the material for the simple, to be a part of a place, to watch, to listen is radical for a world that shuns all that does not climb, consume, or dominate. His love of the land, the forest, the river is a spiritual soothing.
Yet in the end he seems to struggle that it was all put there by God for us to enjoy. We can see the pattern of God in nature; but nature is not God. We can leave materialism behind to find harmony, and that is good.
But in the end we must acknowledge the Creator as the summum bonum. Otherwise we run the risk of worshipping the pottery, rather than the Potter.
Berry’s outlook-a rejection of the material for the simple, to be a part of a place, to watch, to listen is radical for a world that shuns all that does not climb, consume, or dominate. His love of the land, the forest, the river is a spiritual soothing.
Yet in the end he seems to struggle that it was all put there by God for us to enjoy. We can see the pattern of God in nature; but nature is not God. We can leave materialism behind to find harmony, and that is good.
But in the end we must acknowledge the Creator as the summum bonum. Otherwise we run the risk of worshipping the pottery, rather than the Potter.
May 6, 2020
Some of the essays didn't engage me much, but some were really great. In particular I though "The Nature Consumers," "Some Thoughts on Citizenship and Conscience in Honor of Don Pratt" and the title essay were stellar. It's amazing how relevant this book still is more than 50 years after it was published. His writings about the Vietnam War in particular could be applied verbatim to the conflicts of the last 20 years.
October 22, 2020
I think my favorite essays in this collection are The Loss of Future and The Long-Legged House.
One quote from the first,
"It is not just or merciful or decent to treat people as abstractions."
I know he wrote these before the other essays I have read from him but they are not diminished read out of order.
One quote from the first,
"It is not just or merciful or decent to treat people as abstractions."
I know he wrote these before the other essays I have read from him but they are not diminished read out of order.
April 6, 2018
Amazing work of essays that area foundation for many ideas of living a better life in the modern world. Some of the first essays can be a bit dated but have powerful relevance today in their insight. The longer essays later in the book read the best today.
May 18, 2020
Frontloaded with occasional essays rather specific to strip-mining in Kentucky in the 60s, but still chockful of timeless takeaways. Then there's "The Loss of the Future," which should be required reading for American Christians.
August 28, 2025
I can only imagine picking up this book, his first collection of essays, in 1969 and how captivating they would have been. The last chapter and pages are remarkable. Berry wraps you in a cocoon of observational wisdom and reflections that left me grateful for moments of peace.
March 14, 2020
There are moments of genius - but oftentimes overly long and boring (particularly with his longer essays). This one took me a really long time to get through [3/5 stars]
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June 23, 2025Holy hell what great stuff. Beautiful writing. Transcendentalism in 20th century Kentucky.
July 28, 2016
“The Long-Legged House” is Berry’s manifesto of his devotion to his place. The collection of essays was first published in 1969, five years after Berry returned to Port Royal, Kentucky with the intent of living there for the rest of his life (an intent that has been fulfilled to this day). The first six essays are more critical, addressing wrongs Berry identifies and placing himself in relation to and in light of those wrongs. Berry is stinging at several points, speaking against the war in Vietnam, the consumption of nature by those who do not care for it or know it, and the practice of strip-mining, to point to a few of his areas of focus.
I want to point out a few of his arguments found in “Some Thoughts on Citizenship and Conscience in Honor of Don Pratt.” Much of that essay shows Berry responding to the ills of our society, placing himself where he must. Particularly interesting is his analysis of American values, in which he argues that Americans tend to operate under a “lethargic assumption that a mythologized past can serve as some kind of moral goal that can effectively discipline the present” (95). He recognizes the insufficiency of that as a motive, choosing instead to commit himself to his place and on a more specific level, refusing abstraction. As he puts it elsewhere, “My devotions thins as it widens. I care more for my household than for the town of Port Royal, more for the town of Port Royal than for the County of Henry, more for the County of Henry than for the State of Kentucky, more for the State of Kentucky than for the United States of America” (90).
At the end of that essay, the sixth in the collection, Berry makes a hard break with the words, “What remains I commit to the earth” (106). The break is followed by three essays, each which deals specifically with his place and his story as it relates to each of the specific places: “The Rise,” which speaks of the river adjoining his land; the title essay “The Long Legged House,” which tells the story of his great uncle Curran Matthews and the house he built on the river, along with much more of his own biography; and “A Native Hill,” telling of the hill in his home place. Each of these essays are the reflections of a man who desires to know his place and belong to it. The essays to a large extent extrapolate on Berry’s wish to be a participant rather than an owner, to belong rather than possess. This is stated most explicitly in the title essay: “There is a startling reversal in our ordinary sense of things in the recognition that we are the belongings of the world, not its owners. The social convention of ownership must be qualified by this stern fact, and by the humility it implies, if we are not to be blinded altogether to where we are” (162).
While “The Long-Legged House” is not the perfect essay collection—some of the essays feel a little misplaced, and his language gets a little vague at a few points in the later essays—it’s a tremendous book to read for more insight into who Wendell Berry is and what drives him to commit to his place.
I want to point out a few of his arguments found in “Some Thoughts on Citizenship and Conscience in Honor of Don Pratt.” Much of that essay shows Berry responding to the ills of our society, placing himself where he must. Particularly interesting is his analysis of American values, in which he argues that Americans tend to operate under a “lethargic assumption that a mythologized past can serve as some kind of moral goal that can effectively discipline the present” (95). He recognizes the insufficiency of that as a motive, choosing instead to commit himself to his place and on a more specific level, refusing abstraction. As he puts it elsewhere, “My devotions thins as it widens. I care more for my household than for the town of Port Royal, more for the town of Port Royal than for the County of Henry, more for the County of Henry than for the State of Kentucky, more for the State of Kentucky than for the United States of America” (90).
At the end of that essay, the sixth in the collection, Berry makes a hard break with the words, “What remains I commit to the earth” (106). The break is followed by three essays, each which deals specifically with his place and his story as it relates to each of the specific places: “The Rise,” which speaks of the river adjoining his land; the title essay “The Long Legged House,” which tells the story of his great uncle Curran Matthews and the house he built on the river, along with much more of his own biography; and “A Native Hill,” telling of the hill in his home place. Each of these essays are the reflections of a man who desires to know his place and belong to it. The essays to a large extent extrapolate on Berry’s wish to be a participant rather than an owner, to belong rather than possess. This is stated most explicitly in the title essay: “There is a startling reversal in our ordinary sense of things in the recognition that we are the belongings of the world, not its owners. The social convention of ownership must be qualified by this stern fact, and by the humility it implies, if we are not to be blinded altogether to where we are” (162).
While “The Long-Legged House” is not the perfect essay collection—some of the essays feel a little misplaced, and his language gets a little vague at a few points in the later essays—it’s a tremendous book to read for more insight into who Wendell Berry is and what drives him to commit to his place.
November 18, 2010
This is a Berry book of essays. The title one tells of his personal life following college and marriage, living in San Francisco two years, Europe for a year, living in NY and teaching at NYU for
three years, then returning to teach at the U of Kentucky. He spent weeks the first year his family
lived in Lexington at his family's farm sixty miles away writing a book. During that year he bought
land and began farming and writing in Port Royal, KY. Two paragraphs in the essay so much reflect my
thinking, I was reminded again of why I like Berry so much. WEDDINGS "Our wedding reminds me a little of the Kentucky Derby; the main event, which lasted only a couple of minutes, required days of frantic prologue. During this commotion one must discontinue one's own life and attempt to emulate everybody. Nobody can be still until convinced that this marriage will be like everybody else's. The men insinuate. The women gloat. The church is resurrected and permitted to interfere. As at funerals, the principals cannot be decently let alone, but must be overhauled, upgraded, and messed with until they are not recognizable. During the weeks up to and including the wedding I am sure I was at the center of more absurdity than I hope ever to be at the center of again." WINDOWS "I have never been able to work with any pleasure facing a wall, or in any other way fenced off from things. I need to be in the presence of the world. I need a window or a porch, or even the open outdoors."
three years, then returning to teach at the U of Kentucky. He spent weeks the first year his family
lived in Lexington at his family's farm sixty miles away writing a book. During that year he bought
land and began farming and writing in Port Royal, KY. Two paragraphs in the essay so much reflect my
thinking, I was reminded again of why I like Berry so much. WEDDINGS "Our wedding reminds me a little of the Kentucky Derby; the main event, which lasted only a couple of minutes, required days of frantic prologue. During this commotion one must discontinue one's own life and attempt to emulate everybody. Nobody can be still until convinced that this marriage will be like everybody else's. The men insinuate. The women gloat. The church is resurrected and permitted to interfere. As at funerals, the principals cannot be decently let alone, but must be overhauled, upgraded, and messed with until they are not recognizable. During the weeks up to and including the wedding I am sure I was at the center of more absurdity than I hope ever to be at the center of again." WINDOWS "I have never been able to work with any pleasure facing a wall, or in any other way fenced off from things. I need to be in the presence of the world. I need a window or a porch, or even the open outdoors."
September 20, 2013
"First published in 1969 and out of print for more than twenty-five years, The Long-Legged House was Wendell Berry's first collection of essays, the inaugural work introducing many of the central issues that have occupied him over the course of his career. Three essays at the heart of this volume -- 'The Rise,' 'The Long-Legged House,' and 'A Native Hill' -- are essays of homecoming and memoir, as the writer finds his home place, his native ground, his place on earth. As he later wrote, 'What I stand for is what I stand on,' and here we see him beginning the acts of rediscovery and resettling."
~~ back cover
I've always thought I should love reading Wendell Berry. He echoes my thoughts about the earth and my relationship to it, our relationship to it. But most of what I've read before has been difficult to get into, to feel rather than think. The first essay continued that tradition, but then the essays became more personal, less theoretical. And I was seduced at last.
I dare you to read this book. I dare you to read about the destruction of the land and the environment without weeping in pain and shame. I dare you to read Wendell Berry at his passionate, rational best and not be moved, not be changed.
I dare you to read this book.
~~ back cover
I've always thought I should love reading Wendell Berry. He echoes my thoughts about the earth and my relationship to it, our relationship to it. But most of what I've read before has been difficult to get into, to feel rather than think. The first essay continued that tradition, but then the essays became more personal, less theoretical. And I was seduced at last.
I dare you to read this book. I dare you to read about the destruction of the land and the environment without weeping in pain and shame. I dare you to read Wendell Berry at his passionate, rational best and not be moved, not be changed.
I dare you to read this book.
October 4, 2012
Wendell Berry is a gentle English professor, poet, and writer who has written a book about some things he has obviously thought about carefully. This book is chock full of ideas. Some of them really grabbed me (not that they were new -- just how clearly and simply he has articulated them) while others I did not identify with.
I agree with his ideas on the role of the government and on living in the moment. However, some of his ideas would inhibit economic progress. He appears to be against constructing roads and other development projects preferring to leave the earth as is. Somewhat of a Luddite attitude. The chapter I enjoyed the most was indeed "The Long-Legged House" wherein he talks about his entrance into the house with his new wife, etc. Loved that chapter!
I agree with his ideas on the role of the government and on living in the moment. However, some of his ideas would inhibit economic progress. He appears to be against constructing roads and other development projects preferring to leave the earth as is. Somewhat of a Luddite attitude. The chapter I enjoyed the most was indeed "The Long-Legged House" wherein he talks about his entrance into the house with his new wife, etc. Loved that chapter!
June 5, 2012
The essays in here could feel a bit dated, but the issues involved continue to this day. And the reminiscences reveal how such memory works for us. I really enjoy Wendell berry and hope to read more of him. He touches the naturalist in me, the kid who played outside all day, the mom who wanted her little ones to hold a toad or watch a sunset. His writing hit even more layers within me, but I haven't sorted them all out.
May 19, 2011
I just read this book a couple months ago and the thing I find most interesting is that, although being written 40+ years ago, Wendell Berry's essays are extremely relevant today. His anti-war speech, his essays on the environment, corporate greed and his view on mankind's relationship with nature still ring true. A wonderful read for anyone.
January 15, 2009
Powerful essays on being morally aware in politics and your community. Berry is a fine example of living Christian values with a thinking mind and an outspoken love of right. As always, nature plays a major role in his understanding of self and the world.
October 18, 2009
Republished essays on nature, citizenship, peace, and environmentalism. Some of the essays weren't page-turners, but all were still pertinent today. The essay entitled 'The Long-Legged House' was worth the cost of the book by itself, as far as I'm concerned.
January 31, 2014
Berry's first collection of essays, The Long-Legged House excels best in the lengthy essays at the end - "The Long-Legged House" and "A Native Hill" - that speak of homecoming, the peaceableness of nature, and the mystery of creation.
March 25, 2012
So...dude's kind of a prophet. He wrote both this and A Continuous Harmony over forty years ago... and they still are both perfectly applicable to today's society. Maybe even more so than before. I went from respecting him to basically studying his work after reading this one. Read this.
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August 2, 2009Great speech against war! Account of the building of the what became Burley's and then Jayber's cabin on the river.
September 14, 2008
essays on place and nature.
December 28, 2008
A great introduction to Wendell Berry. I especially enjoyed the last three essays -- his tales of living and building on the river, watching it.
January 30, 2015
The most poignant and timely book I've ever read. And so...I go to my "Camp" called Kalien. A fellow southerner (Appalachians Tennessee).
November 5, 2016
I have so much to say about this volume that I don't want to say it here. If you're interested, ask me in person.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews