Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here, if you like.

After Wendell Berry finished reading “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,” his handlers—an English professor or two—whisked him away to a book signing table.

I walked up to Maurice Manning to introduce myself. I explained how I remembered him from the Writers Colloquium where Haven Kimmel was the keynote speaker.

Charity was standing off to the side, so I motioned her over and introduced her. Because she and I had been separated during the reading, she had no idea who he was or why I was talking with him—and I didn’t have a chance to explain to her that he was single

I can be impulsive, zany and something like a schoolgirl at times, but I decided to stop short of tacky and refrained from mentioning to Maurice that she was single. So we were just three civilized adults chatting about Wendell Berry. [Read more...]