09/01/2026
Kentucky has lost one of its most influential writers and thinkers.
Wendell Berry, a native of Henry County whose writing explored our relationships with the land, our communities, and one another, died Monday at the age of 92.
In his 1988 essay “The Work of Local Culture,” Berry wrote about the importance of preserving the stories that connect us:
“When a community loses its memory, its members no longer know each other. How can they know each other if they have forgotten or have never learned each other's stories?”
Those words have long resonated with our work at the Kentucky Historical Society and our belief that understanding the past helps us better understand one another.
We join Kentuckians across the Commonwealth and readers around the world in remembering Wendell Berry and the questions he asked us to consider about place, community, memory and our responsibilities to one another. And we extend our condolences to the Berry family and all those touched by his life and work.
