Travelers from Far and Wide for Mr. Berry

We had a packed house Tuesday evening for Wendell Berry’s appearance. People lined up early for the 7 p.m. events at Central Library – some as early as 5 p.m.! As we stated on Facebook, Twitter and the Arlington Reads blog, it was a free event, courtesy of the Friends of the Arlington Public Library, and seats were limited so arriving early was encouraged for those who didn’t want to miss out.

The excitement was palpable, so we decided to find out where these early birds were from, how they heard about Mr. Berry’s appearance at the Library, and whether they had read “The Memory of Old Jack”.

Here’s who we met, and what we learned:

Aida and Kate found out about Wendell Berry’s visit through the DC Area Community of Communities list serve. They haven’t yet read the Arlington Reads title, but they love Berry’s writings in general.

Sally, Sofia and Elizabeth (not pictured) found out about both Wendell Berry and Novella Carpenter’s appearances through a Weston A. Price Foundation email. Elizabeth especially loves Mr. Berry’s essays, and said that she has been “waiting since 1980 for this night.”

Rob (left) lives in Arlington. He found out about Mr. Berry’s visit online (either the County site or the Library’s web page), and has read The Memory of Old Jack. Ryan (center) and Alex are friends from New Hampshire. Ryan – who flew down from Laconia, NH just for this event – found out about Mr. Berry’s appearance from a Wendell Berry Yahoo Group, which got the info from Brother Tom Murphy’s Mr. Wendell Berry of Kentucky website. He then told Alex, who drove up from Lynchberg, where he goes to school. Although Rob did not know Ryan and Alex before this evening, the three were kind enough to be photographed together. Thanks guys!

Judi and Mike drove down from Gaithersburg, and are big Wendell Berry fans as well – they showed us a photo they took of Mr. Berry at an event a year ago. Mike found out about tonight from his yoga teacher, and then soon after saw the event listed on a Slow Food website. Mike has read all of Mr. Berry’s work, and especially loves the Port William books.

Anna lives in Arlington, and said that she first heard about tonight in a Washington Post article – after which several friends also told her about the event.

Sarah (left), who has read The Memory of Old Jack, found out about tonight’s event through her DC church’s listserve. Then she told her friend Betsy (right) – who lives in Rosslyn, but has not read the book. These two were the first ones in line!

We’ll have more photos and the video of the program later this week.