Port William (Wendell Berry)
Port William, Kentucky is a fictional American rural town found in each of the novels and short stories and some of the poems of Wendell Berry. The larger region, set along the western bank of the Kentucky River, consists of Port William proper and several outlying farms and settlements around the also-fictional Dawe's Landing, Squire's Landing, Goforth, and Cotman Ridge. The town is set about "twelve miles or better" south of the fictional town of Hargrave and the Ohio River.
It is generally acknowledged that Port William is a fiction inspired by Berry's own hometown of Port Royal, Kentucky. An actual town of Port William, Kentucky was established at the confluence of the Kentucky and Ohio rivers in 1792. That name was changed to Carrollton in 1838. Its location on the Ohio River relates it to Berry's larger fictional town of Hargrave.
Stories
Each of Berry's fictional works is set in and around Port William. There are to date eight novels, fifty-six short stories, a verse drama, and seventeen poems that touch on the people and life of the place.The chronology of the tales stretches from the United States Civil War to 2021. Within these stories a reader encounters both momentous and ordinary events in the lives of the Beechum, Feltner, Coulter, and Catlett families, individuals of which, along with others, make up the Port William membership.
In his essay "Imagination in Place," Berry comments on his intentions for Port William: "I have made the imagined place of Port William, its neighborhood and membership, in an attempt to honor the actual place where I have lived. By means of the imagined place, over the last fifty years, I have learned to see my native landscape and neighborhood as a place unique in the world, a work of God, possessed of an inherent sanctity that mocks any human valuation that can be put upon it."
"The Membership"
"The Membership" is the term by which Berry and his characters convey the bonds of a community within its given geographical location. The "membership" consists of any person who recognizes his or her place among—and responsibility for the well-being of—the land, animals, and people of the place.In "The Wild Birds," the character Burley Coulter explains what he means by 'membership,'
This concept is drawn from St. Paul's understanding, "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ." Concerning Burley's "Everything," Berry has said that it may be that "Burley improved on St. Paul … by telling a more comprehensive truth."
Narrative chronology
The stories and novels of Port William, are listed here according to the order in which the events of the stories occur. Each is followed by the collection in which it may be found.To that point, each of the short stories from "The Girl in the Window" to "Not a Tear" are collected in Wendell Berry: Port William Novels & Stories, The Civil War to World War II with the exceptions of "A Clearing" and "Don't Send a Boy to Do a Man's Work".
Where stories are given several dates, the most recent is used for the chronology.
- The Girl in the Window A Place in Time
- The Hurt Man That Distant Land
- "Don't Send a Boy to Do a Man's Work" Jayber Crow and That Distant Land
- Fly Away, Breath A Place in Time
- A Consent Watch With Me
- Pray Without Ceasing Fidelity
- Watch With Me Watch With Me
- A Half-Pint of Old Darling Watch With Me
- The Lost Bet Watch With Me
- Nathan Coulter
- Down in the Valley Where the Green Grass Grows A Place in Time
- Thicker than Liquor The Wild Birds
- Nearly to the Fair Watch With Me
- Burley Coulter’s Fortunate Fall A Place in Time
- The Solemn Boy Watch With Me
- A Jonquil for Mary Penn Fidelity
- Turn Back the Bed Watch With Me
- A Burden A Place in Time
- A Desirable Woman A Place in Time
- Misery A Place in Time
- Andy Catlett: Early Education A Place in Time
- Andy Catlett: Early Travels
- Drouth A Place in Time
- Stand By Me A Place in Time
- A World Lost
- A Place on Earth
- The Divide How It Went
- Making It Home Fidelity
- Not a Tear A Place in Time
- One Nearly Perfect Day How It Went
- Where Did They Go? The Wild Birds
- The Dark Country A Place in Time
- The Bringer of Water, a verse drama found in Farming: A Hand Book
- A New Day A Place in Time
- One of Us How It Went
- Mike A Place in Time
- The Memory of Old Jack
- It Wasn’t Me The Wild Birds
- The Boundary The Wild Birds
- That Distant Land The Wild Birds
- Who Dreamt This Dream? A Place in Time
- A Friend of Mine That Distant Land
- The Wild Birds The Wild Birds
- Jayber Crow
- The Requirement A Place in Time
- Are You All Right? Fidelity
- An Empty Jacket A Place in Time
- Remembering
- Fidelity Fidelity
- The Great Interruption... How It Went
- At Home A Place in Time
- The Inheritors That Distant Land
- Sold A Place in Time
- Hannah Coulter
- How It Went How It Went
- The Branch Way of Doing How It Went
- A Place in Time A Place in Time
- Dismemberment How It Went
- A Conversation How It Went
- A Clearing How It Went
- The Art of Loading Brush How It Went
- Time Out of Time How It Went
- The Order of Loving Care The Art of Loading Brush
- A Time and Times and the Dividing of Time How It Went
- A Rainbow How It Went
- Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story
Poetry
The Port William Membership exists not only in the novels and short fiction of Wendell Berry but also in some poems that have appeared over the years. While any number of poems may be thought to contain references to the characters and situations of the fictions, this list is restricted to those poems that make explicit mention of one or more of the citizens of Port William.Jack Beechum in "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book and "Work Song" in Clearing, and Collected Poems 1957-1982
Kate Helen Branch in "Burley Coulter's Song for Kate Helen Branch" in Given
Andy Catlett in "1989, V" in A Timbered Choir: The Sabath Poems 1979-1997 and "In Art Rowanberry's Barn" in Given
Flora Catlett in "What Passes, What Remains" in The Art of Loading Brush
Henry Catlett in "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book
Burley Coulter in "Window Poem" in Openings, Collected Poems 1957-1982, and The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry ; "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book ; "1989, V" in A Timbered Choir: The Sabath Poems 1979-1997; "Burley Coulter's Song for Kate Helen Branch" in Given ; and "Sabbaths 2000, VI" in Given
Jarrat Coulter in "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book
Nathan Coulter in "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book
Jayber Crow in "Sabbaths 2004, IV" in Given and "Old Man Jayber Crow" in Leavings
Hannah Feltner in "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book
Little Margaret in "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book
Margaret Feltner in "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book
Mat Feltner in "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book and "Work Song" in Clearing and Collected Poems 1957-1982
Virgil Feltner in "The Bringer of Water" in Farming: A Hand Book
Billy, Uncle Stanley, and Raymond in "The Birth " in Farming: A Hand Book and Collected Poems 1957-1982
Elton Penn in "Work Song" in Clearing and Collected Poems 1957-1982
Arthur Rowanberry in "A Parting" in Entries "In Art Rowanberry's Barn" in Given "Men Untrained to Comfort” in Leavings, "Sabbaths 2006, IX" in Leavings, "Sabbaths 2008, VI" in Leavings, and "What Passes, What Remains" in The Art of Loading Brush
Early Rowanberry in "What Passes, What Remains" in The Art of Loading Brush
Martin Rowanberry in "1990, I" in A Timbered Choir: The Sabath Poems 1979-1997, "1992, VIII" in A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997, and "What Passes, What Remains" in The Art of Loading Brush
Pascal Sowers in "What Passes, What Remains" in ''The Art of Loading Brush''
Resources
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