Calvin News

Wendell Berry, an internationally known writer, environmentalist and farmer will speak at Calvin College on Tuesday, April 25, 2000, at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center. 

Berry's lecture "Life is a Miracle" is dedicated to the memory of Calvin English Professor Lionel Basney, a writer and environmentalist. Basney (pictured above) taught at Calvin from 1985 until his death this past summer after injuries sustained in a swimming accident. 

In Basney's book, "An Earth-Careful Way of Life," he likens Berry to Henry David Thoreau. Basney calls Berry an "inescapable presence in the environmental movement and specifically in the defense of traditional farming." 

During his lifetime, Basney did more than review Berry's work. Ruth Basney, Lionel's wife, notes the family visited Berry's farm several times. "The two were good friends," she said. 

Berry's lecture will highlight the Calvin Environmental Assessment Program's spring Poster session. 

CEAP is an interdepartmental program that assesses the environment of the campus and surrounding areas. Gail Heffner, director of the Service-Learning Center at Calvin, coordinates the service aspect of CEAP and proposed that Berry speak at the poster session. Basney and Berry both crossed the disciplines of writing and science, Heffner noted. 

"Wendell Berry is a prolific writer," she said, adding that she discovered his book, "The Unsettling of America" in college. "The connections he drew were amazing."

Basney also crossed the line to write about the environment in "An Earth-Careful Way of Life." 

Lionel's wife does not think it is strange for an English professor to be taking on such topics. 

"[Environmental issues] are important for everyone on earth," she said. "It's important so that we can survive. The state of the water, the soil and the air is not something we can take or leave. The crisis is dire." 

English Professor Karen Saupe is coordinating a reading of Basney's work before Berry's talk. 

"Basney and Berry were good friends--that's why Berry is coming," said Saupe, noting that Berry has turned down invitations to participate in the Festival of Faith and Writing. "The English department is pleased that he's coming for the CEAP event to honor Lionel's memory." 

During Basney's career at Calvin, he taught courses in Shakespeare, 18th Century Literature and writing. The 2000 Festival of Faith and Writing, which Basney helped plan, was also dedicated to his memory.

--written by media relations writer Sarah Potter (class of 2000)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Below is a poem Lionel wrote shortly before his death. More of his work can be found on the English department tribute page.

Listen, he said.
The wind came down the mountain
and washed the full trees,

the moss dimmed and paled,
the white rocks
blazed out.
I thought, this will go on
whatever else goes on,
beyond all human stir,

and I stood to face it
as something to be answered,
and saw the morning

turn a bright spine to the sun
and run across the heights,
pine-blue, pine-piled,

and felt the rising wind
divide the forest like a sea,

and if you ask me now
what I am, I will say,

listen, I have never forgotten
that wind that never pauses,

now as I speak to you, I know
the deep familiar unease,
that deep unease which is my rest.