Short Story Review
As I read The Stackpole Legend, I found myself comparing it to another recent read of mine, Ethan Frome. Both Delinthus Stackpole and Ethan Frome seemed to be cut from the same cloth. Both were laconic farmers who inherited their farms from parents who, one imagines, were also laconic. Both had difficulty wooing women. Both had connections with their communities, but neither had much experience with the broader world. Year after year, they worked their farms, performed their duties, and maintained a domestic life. So why is one considered a tragedy and the other a celebration of life? I surmise to you that the attitudes of the protagonists what these men apart. Ethan Frome had a woe-is-me attitude, whereas Delinthus Stackpole took life in stride. He couldn’t imagine a better life than the one he lived. Failure of imagination? Possible. But he lived an entire life dreading nothing at length. One might call him a legend.
The Stackpole Legend by Wendell Berry was first published in The Threepenny Review, but The Best Short Stories 2025, where I discovered republished it. It tells of the life of Delinthus “Stump” Stackpole from his birth to his death. In school, he was bullied, but he did not care about that. He hardly noticed. He learned to farm by growing up on a farm. After school, he worked the land with his father until the latter died. Then he worked the farm to take care of his mother and himself. When she followed her husband to the grave, Stump decided he needed a woman. He decided on Kizzie Jones. How did such a man, who never said much except to his mule, Bud, woo the future Mrs. Stackpole? Woo her he did, and how he did it surprised me and brought a smile to my face.
The first time I read The Stackpole Legend, I didn’t get it. Nothing happened! It is an interesting portray of Delinthus, but a portray doesn’t make good fiction. It read like a character’s backstory, something an author writes in order to get a handle on a character. But The Best Short Stories saw something more in the story, so I figured that I had missed something vital. The hint lies in the title. Legend. What makes a life legendary? The Odyssey tells of the journey home of Odysseus, a legend, for sure. You might even say Odysseus is the legend. What makes Delinthus similar to Odysseus? Nothing. But that was Berry’s intention. When you travel to Port William, Berry’s fictitious town, ask them for a legend. They will not tell you about Odysseus because they know nothing about him except some stray tales. They tell you about Stump Stackpole, their legend.
I doubt that Ethan Frome thought his life was legendary. His quiet nature seems to be based in the events of his life, the sorrow they caused, and even the anger. Things were so bad he could talk about them. Ethan is so pissed off that the words are trapped in his larynx. Delinthus’ quiet nature seems to suggest that he has nothing to say, and when he does, he doesn’t know how to say it. He is content.
Another contrast lies in their place and their attitude towards it. To Ethan, the place was claustrophobic. He once studied science and engineering, and he had ambitions of escaping Starkfield. Families’ obligations ruined those plans. And then the marriage to Zeena. He was trapped. Even the snow of Massachusetts held him prisoner. But Delinthus belonged to that land. The farm was his identity. He helped his father until he died, and then his mother, and finally Kizzie. He never dreamed of leaving the land, not even for a vacation.
To illustrate the point, I give my Word of the Story, rastus plow. This is a one-horse plow used between the rows of tobacco or corn to loosen the soil and cut weeds.
One day when he was plowing his tobacco with a rastus plow and the good mule he called Bud, he was so absorbed in his work and his ongoing commentary that he did not see his friend and sometimes helper, Winky Hample, until Winky spoke. “Who you talking to, Strump?”
Wendell Berry was born in 1934. He studied English at the University of Kentucky, earning a master’s degree. At Stanford, he studied creative writing under Wallace Stegner. He taught at New York University, but in 1960, he and his family moved back to Kentucky, where he taught at the University of Kentucky. He bought a farm and worked it. His writing includes the nonfiction book The Unsettling of America (1977) and the poetry collection The Country of Marriage (1973). In fiction, he also wrote The Memory of Old Jack (1974) and Jayber Crow (2000) and other novels. He is alive at 92.
In my various readings of The Stackpole Legend, I went “not getting it” to admiring it. Did I like it? I am glad I had read it. That is the most I can say about it. I think it’s the type of story that you love or hate; either you understand what Berry is up to or read it and forget it. I’m glad I had read The Stackpole Legend because it gave me the grounds to contrast Ethan Frome. Two men, living similar lives, one filled with regret, the other with pride. You might even call Stump a legend.
PS: Wendell Berry died on August 31, 2026. in a home of Port Royal, Kentucky. He was 92.
