"The Memory of Old Jack" by Wendell Berry

Old Jack is what we once called “a character.” You didn’t find characters in large cities; you found them in small towns. Everyone knew them; they might be funny or odd or irascible or curmudgeonly. But they were part of the fabric of the place, part of its history and memory.  

Old Jack is 92. Born in 1860, the year before the Civil War, he has lived in the Port William area for his entire life. He’s connected to other families by kinship and relationship. He farmed for as far back as he can remember, but his farming days are behind him. He lives in what passes for Port William’s hotel, really just a boarding house with other elderly residents. But none are as old as he; he can remember some of them as children.

 

Old Jack can feel the end of his long life approaching. He knows this as well as he knows anything. He finds himself moving almost effortlessly between what was and what is. He recalls his childhood, his courtship of Rose and their doomed marriage, the births and the deaths, his estrangement from his only surviving child, the cost he paid for taking on the farmer who didn’t revere the land like Jack did. He remembers of deaths of friends; but he can rouse himself to engage the present, like seeing young Andy Catlett off to college, knowing it’s the last time he’ll see the boy of whom he’s especially fond.

 

Wendell Berry

The Memory of Old Jack is the second-to-last of the Port William novels by Wendell Berry. Set in 1952, it is a requiem for the kind of small-town and farming life that slowly vanished after World Wat II. It’s about the land and the people who farmed it, and the lives they lived. It’s not a rose-colored-glasses look backward; not everything was wonderful and simple. But it’s a story that only Wendell Berry could write, I think.

 

Berry is a poet, novelist, essayist, environmentalist, and social critic. His fiction, both novels and stories, are centered in the area he calls Port William, Kentucky, on the Ohio River. He’s won a rather astounding number of awards, prizes, fellowships, and recognitions. He lives on a farm in Kentucky.

 

If such a thing as purpose to a novel exists, then the purpose of The Memory of Old Jack is to remind us that this way of life existed, it was important, and when it passed, we lost something worth keeping. This may be my favorite of all the Port William novels,

 

Related:

My review of Berry’s That Distant Land.

Wendell Berry and the Land.

My review of Berry’s Jayber Crow.

Wendell Berry and This Day: Poems at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Wendell Berry and Terrapin: Poems at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Wendell Berry’s Our Only World.

The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Berry.

Nathan Coulter by Wendell Berry.

Andy Catlett: Early Travels by Wendell Berry.

A World Lost by Wendell Berry.

A Place on Earth by Wendell Berry.

Some Monday Readings

 

The Intellectual Virtues of the Small Magazine – Jeff Reimer at Comment Magazine.

 

The Darktown Strutters Ball – Debra Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Message from Pope Francis: Read a Novel – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

 

The Fantastic Imagination – George Macdonald at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

St. James’s Square and the Growth of Stuart London – A London Inheritance.

He’s Got Me Rereading My Own Books

Pastor Bill Grandi has three posts last week on his rereading of my Dancing Priest series. On Tuesday, Bill discussed the difficulty of reading the fourth book in the series, Dancing Prophet, because of what it was about. It was a difficult book to write, and it became somewhat prophetic, including when the Archbishop of Canterbury resigned for helping to cover up a scandal in the Church of England. 

On Wednesday, Bill discussed a conversation between Michael and Sarah Kent-Hughes in Dancing Prophet, in which Sarah observes how hard it is to be one of the workers sent in “to clean out the pipes.” And on Thursday, Bill writes about a scene in the fifth and last in the series, Dancing King, in which Michael’s two sons, Henry and Thomas (or Hank and Tommy, as they’re known by the other characters), are discussing “calling,” or being called by God as described in I Samuel 16:1-13, the rejection of Saul and the anointing of David.  Coincidentally, the pastor at my church used that passage as the text for his sermon this morning. 

 

Bill’s post led me to start rereading my own books. I’ve already finished the first two, Dancing Priest and A Light Shining. (Amazon has the Dancing Priest pages messed up; the Kindle version is here; the cheaper paperback price is here, but it’s still more than it’s supposed to be.)

 

Originally, I had planned on doing only those two books. They were written as one (huge) manuscript of about 150,000 words. But the publisher and I had a conversation about what might happened after Michael and Sarah returned to Britain, and it was in that conversation that I described what could be the plot lines for several more books, including what would become Dancing Prophet and its difficult subject. Two weeks later, the publisher sent me a short news clip; the difficult subject had become a horrific reality. That reality continues 13 years later, with the resignation last year of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

 

After rereading A Light Shining, it is my prayer that its subject – religious violence that nearly tears Britain apart – never becomes reality. 

The song

After Psalms 33:4-5 and 100 

I hear the earth

singing, I hear

the earth serving

with one voice,

I hear the earth

worshipping, I hear

the songs of thanksgiving,

the songs of praise.

I am singing.

I am serving.

I am worshipping.

I am serving.

Through the gates

I walk, singing.

In his courts,

I stand, singing.

I stand singing

with a voice

of thanksgiving

of his faithfulness.

He loves forever.

He is faithful,

forever.

 

Photograph by Keegan Henman via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

The Winds Blow Hardest Against the Tallest Trees – Tim Challies.

 

Every Pinch of Pain Has Purpose – John Piper at Desiring God.

 

Next Easter, Just Preach the Gospel – Robb Brunansky ay The Cripplegate.

 

Saturday Good Reads - April 26, 2025

Something strange is afoot – Gen Z is flocking to church. It’ not only happening in the United States (where the return appears to be led by young men) but also in Britain, where it’s being called “a very British revival.” 

The outcome of the American Revolution was a very near thing, and there were many times when all looked lost and the British would regain control. But things happened; in some cases, they were very small things. Sam Negus at Law & Liberty looks at the “Contingency in the American Revolution.”

 

For centuries, scholars have believed that William Shakespeare abandoned his family in Stratford while he went to seek fame and fortune in London. New evidence suggests that this isn’t really what happened, and that Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway had a much stronger and better marriage that previously believed. 

 

Faith

 

Bid Adieu. Machen was right – Nathan Eshelman at Gentle Reformation.

 

Amid the chaos and the night of man: From The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

What We Miss When We Skip the Prophets – Ryan Higginbottom at Knowable Word.

News Media

 

A new media order is emerging: Journalism isn’t dead. It’s on Substack – Hamish McKenzie at The Substack Pot.

 

Poetry

 

“The Listeners,” poem by Walter de la Mare – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

John Neihardt’s Epic ‘Cycle of the West’: Uncovering America’s Forgotten Poet, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 – Andrew Benson Brown at Classical Poets Live.

 

A Widower – Amit Majmudar at Literary Matters.

 

Veils – Tyler Rogness at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

“Channel Firing,” poem by Thomas Hardy – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

“Re-reading Katherine Mansfield’s Bliss and Other Stories,” poem by Douglas Dunn – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.

 

American Stuff

 

Don Sickles Returns to Gettysburg for the Last Time – John L. Hopkins at Emerging Civil War.

 

Writing and Literature

 

The Art of Adventure Covers – Frank Theodat at Pulp, Pipe, & Poetry.

 

America 250

 

Stolen or Gone Missing? – Journal of the American Revolution.

 

Paul Revere Wasn’t the Only Midnight Rider Who Dashed in the Darkness to Warn the Patriots That the British Were Coming – Ellen Wexler at Smithsonian Magazine.

 

Community Life

 

Garden with Children – Reid Makowsky at Front Porch Republic.

 

Culture

 

Princeton’s War on Civil Rights – Christopher Rufo.

 

Desert Road – Casting Crowns

Painting: Man with Moustache Reading, oil on canvas (1930s) by Louise Alix (1888-1980). 

When renewal begins

After Romans 12:2 and Luke 6:43-45 

When renewal begins,

the old is gutted or

torn down, replaced 

by the new and lasting.

Renewal can be painful,

a tearing out, not unlike

removing a hurting,

diseased, rotting tooth,

extracted for our good,

replaced for our renewal. 

Renewal is a process,

not a transformation

overnight. Renewal is

lifelong, dismantling

the old to establish

the new. And sometimes

progress can only be

seen and understood

at the end. In the meantime,

all creation groans.

 

Photograph by Marek Studzinski via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Resurrection – poem by R.S. Thomas at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

Why Does John Mention That He Outran Peter to Jesus’ Tomb? – A.W. Workman at Entrusted to the Dirt.

 

Jesus Lives! – Anthony Esolen at Word & Song.

 

Easter Isn’t Over – Seth Lewis.

 

“A Cowboy’s Prayer,” poem by Badger Clark – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Poets and Poems: Sandra Marchetti and "Diorama"

One of my most vivid memories of the toys of childhood, other than my official Davy Crockett coonskin hat, was the ViewMaster ™. I spent countless hours advancing the scenes of stories, foreign places, movies, science topics, and many other subjects, with those small windows on a circular cardboard reel. And, yes, the ViewMaster ™ is still around and available on Amazon and in toy stores.  

Officially, those scenes on the reels were “dioramas,” but I always believed dioramas were something else entirely – recreated scenes, usually historical or from nature, that you could see at museums like the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum in Shreveport. The museum as close to my grandmother’s house, and the two of us often went when I visited. It was my first view of agriculture up close.

 

As it turns out, the definition of diorama is broad enough to include both my childhood toy and the museum exhibits. Says the Merriam-Webster dictionary: “a scenic representation in which a partly translucent painting is seen through a distance through an opening; a scenic representation in which sculpted figures are displayed, usually in miniature.” A diorama can also be a life-size exhibit.

 

In Diorama: Poems, poet Sandra Marchetti doesn’t talk about childhood memories of toys or museum visits. But the aptly named poetry collection functions as its own diorama, allowing you to peer through a poem to view subjects displayed in scenic ways, or to allow you to walk through a life-size representation of a subject. And she does it by using profoundly vivid language.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Thursday Readings

 

Offsite – poem by George Witte at The New Criterion.

 

Hatley St. George: a poem for St. George’s Day – Malcolm Guite.

 

Sonnets for Shakespeare’s Birthday – Margaret Coats at the Society of Classical Poets. 

 

“A Fairy Song,” poem by William Shakespeare – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Some Wednesday Readings

  

The Beauty Around Me – Brian Miller at Notes from an East Tennessee Farmer.

 

The Forgotten Battle of Menotomy – Michael Ruderman at American Heritage.

 

Freedom is still the Revolutionary War’s legacy – Michael Aulin at The Spectator.

 

John Adams and the Rubicon of Lexington / Concord – Chris Mackowski at Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

A Phone that Does Not Ring – David Bannon at Front Porch Republic.

 

250^th Anniversary: Benedict Arnold’s War Begins, April 22, 1775 – Emerging Revolutionary War Era.

 

Agrippa Hull: A Revolutionary Story – Talya Leodari at The Journal of the American Revolution. 

Drama at the Old North Bridge - Rick Atkinson at American Heritage.

Painting: John Adams about 1775.