Donald Hall

Donald Hall. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Donald Hall
Born	September 20, 1928 Hamden, Connecticut, United States
Occupation	poet
Nationality	United States

Donald Hall (born September 20, 1928) is an American poet, who served as Poet laureate of both the United States and New Hampshire.

Life

Youth and education

Hall was born in Hamden, Connecticut, the only child of Donald Andrew Hall, a businessman, and Lucy (Wells). He began writing even before reaching his teens, beginning with poems and short stories, and then moving on to novels and dramatic verse.

He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he continued to write throughout his prep school years. At 16 years of age, he attended the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, where he made the acquaintance of poet Robert Frost. That same year, he published his 1st work.

While attending Harvard University as an undergraduate, Hall served on the editorial board of The Harvard Advocate, and got to know a number of people who, like him, had ambitions in the literary world, amongst them John Ashbery, Robert Bly, Kenneth Koch, Frank O'Hara, and Adrienne Rich. In 1968, he signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. During his senior year, he won the Glascock Prize that Koch had won 3 years earlier. He graduated from Harvard University in 1951, earning a bachelor's degree.

After leaving Harvard, Hall went to the University of Oxford for 2 years, to study for the B.Litt. He was editor of the magazine Oxford Poetry, literary editor of Isis, editor of New Poems, and poetry editor of The Paris Review. He earned a B.Litt. from Oxford in 1953.

On returning to the United States, Hall went to Stanford, where he spent a year as a Creative Writing Fellow, studying under poet and critic Yvor Winters.

Marriage and career

Following his year at Stanford, Hall went back to Harvard, where he spent 3 years in the Society of Fellows. During that time, he put together his 1st book, Exiles and Marriages, and with Robert Pack and Louis Simpson edited The New Poets of England and America, an anthology which made a significant impression on both sides of the Atlantic, .

Hall served as a member of the editorial board for poetry at the Wesleyan University Press from 1958 to 1964.

While teaching at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he met poet Jane Kenyon, whom he married in 1972. 3 years after the marriage, they moved to Eagle Pond Farm, his grandparents' former home in Wilmot, New Hampshire, where he continues to live.

When not working on poems, he has turned his hand to reviews, criticism, textbooks, sports journalism, memoirs, biographies, children's stories, and plays. He has also devoted much time to editing: between 1983 and 1996 he oversaw publication of more than sixty titles for the University of Michigan Press alone.

In 1989, when Hall was in his early 60s, it was discovered that he had colon cancer. Surgery followed, but by 1992 the cancer had metastasized to his liver. After another operation, and chemotherapy, he went into remission, though he was told that he only had a 1-in-3 chance of surviving the next 5 years.

Early in 1994, it was discovered that Kenyon had leukemia. Her illness, her death 15 months later, and Hall's struggle to come to terms with these things, were the subject of his 1998 book, Without.

To date, Hall has published 15 books of poetry. He has also written several collections of essays (among them Life Work and String Too Short to be Saved), children's books, and a number of plays.

He has been closely affiliated with the Bennington College's graduate writing program since 1994, giving lectures and readings annually. He continues to live and work at Eagle Pond Farm.

Writing

Hall's recurring themes include New England rural living, baseball, and how work conveys meaning to ordinary life. He is regarded as a master of both formal and free verse, and a champion of the art of revision, for whom writing is a craft, not merely a mode of self-expression.

Without: Poems was published in 1998, on the 3rd anniversary of Jane Kenyon's death. Most of the poems in Without deal with Kenyon's illness and death, and many are epistolary poems. Another book of poems dedicated to Kenyon, Painted Bed, is cited by Publishers Weekly as "more controlled, more varied and more powerful, this taut follow-up volume reexamines Hall's grief while exploring the life he has made since. The book's 1st poem, 'Kill the Day,' stands among the best Hall has ever written. It examines mourning in 16 long-lined stanzas, alternating catalogue with aphorism, understatement with keened lament: 'How many times will he die in his own lifetime?'"

Recognition

At the end of his freshman year at the University of Oxford, Hall won the university's Newdigate Prize for his long poem, "Exile."

His children's book Ox-Cart Man (1979) won the Caldecott Medal.

Hall was named the 14th U.S. Poet Laureate. He served from 1 October 2006, and was succeeded by Charles Simic the following year. At the time of his appointment, Hall was profiled in an October 16, 2006 episode of The News Hour With Jim Lehrer. Hall was awarded the 2010 National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama.

Hall was also, for 5 years (1984-1989), Poet Laureate of his home state, New Hampshire.

He can list among the many other honors and awards to have come his way: the Lamont Poetry Prize for Exiles and Marriages (1955), the Edna St Vincent Millay Award (1956), 2 Guggenheim Fellowships (1963-1964 and 1972-1973), inclusion on the Horn Book Honour List (1986), the Sarah Josepha Hale Award (1983), the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize (1987), the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry (1988), the NBCC Award (1989), the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in poetry (1989), and the Frost Medal (1990). He has been nominated for the National Book Award on 3 separate occasions (1956, 1979 and 1993). In 1994, he received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement.

Hall received an honorary Ph.D., Lit., from Bates College in 1991.

Hall and Jane Kenyon were profiled at their home in a 1993 PBS documentary, "A Life Together," which aired as an episode of "The Bill Moyers Journal."

Publications

Poetry

• Fantasy Poets No. 4. Fantasy Press, 1952.
• Exile Fantasy Press, 1952.
• To the Loud Wind, and other poems. Pegasus, 1955.
• Exiles and Marriages. New York: Viking, 1955.
• The Dark Houses. New York: Viking, 1958.
• A Hundred Thousand Straightened Nails. 1961.
• A Roof of Tiger Lilies. New York: Viking, 1964.
• The Alligator Bride: Poems, new and selected. New York: Harper, 1969.
• The Yellow Room: Love Poems. New York: Harper, 1971.
• The Gentleman's Alphabet Book (limericks, illustrated by Harvey Kornberg). New York: Dutton, 1972.
• The Town of Hill. New York: Godine, 1975.
• A Blue Wing Tilts at the Edge of the Sea: Selected poems, 1964-1974. London: Secker & Warburg, 1975.
• Kicking the Leaves. New York: Harper, 1978.
• The Toy Bone. BOA Editions, 1979.
• Brief Lives: Seven epigrams. William B. Ewart, 1983.
• The Twelve Seasons. Deerfield Press, 1983.
• Great Day in the Cow's House (photos by T.S. Bronson). Ives Street Press, 1984.
• The Happy Man. New York: Random House, 1986.
• The One Day. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1988.
• Old and New Poems. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1990.
• Here at Eagle Pond, 1992.
• The Museum of Clear Ideas. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1993.
• The Old Life. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
• Without. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
• Two by Two (with Richard Wilbur), 2000.
• The Purpose of a Chair. Waldron Island, WA: Brooding Heron Press, 2000.
• The Painted Bed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002.
• White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Poems, 1946-2006. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.
• The Back Chamber, 2011.

Plays

• An Evening's Frost (first produced in Ann Arbor, MI; produced Off-Broadway, 1965).
• Bread and Roses (produced in Ann Arbor, MI, 1975).
• Ragged Mountain Elegies (produced in Peterborough, NH, 1983), published as The Bone Ring (produced in New York, 1986), Story Line, 1987.

Short fiction

• Willow Temple: New and selected stories. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003.

Non-fiction

• String too Short to Be Saved: Recollections of summers on a New England farm (autobiography; illustrated by Mimi Korach). New York: Viking, 1961.
  • expanded edition, New York: Godine, 1979.
• Henry Moore: The life and work of a great sculptor. New York: Harper, 1966.
• As the Eye Moves: A sculpture by Henry Moore (photos by David Finn). New York: Abrams, 1970.
• Marianne Moore: The cage and the animal. Pegasus, 1970.
• The Pleasures of Poetry. New York: Harper, 1971.
• Writing Well. New York: Little, Brown, 1974.
  • 9th edition (with Sven Birkerts). New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
• Playing Around: The million-dollar infield goes to Florida (with others). Boston: Little, Brown, 1974.
• Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball (with Dock Ellis). New York: Coward, 1976.
• Goatfoot Milktongue Twinbird: Interviews, essays, and notes on poetry, 1970-76. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1978.
• Remembering Poets: Reminiscences and opinions: Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound. New York: Harper, 1978.
  • revised as Their Ancient Glittering Eyes, Remembering poets and more poets. Boston: Ticknor & Fields, 1992.
• To Keep Moving: Essays, 1959-1969. Hobart & William Smith Colleges Press, 1980.
• To Read Literature. New York: Holt, 1980.
• The Weather for Poetry: Essays, reviews, and notes on Poetry, 1977-1981. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1982.
• Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on sport (mostly baseball). North Point Press, 1985.
• Seasons at Eagle Pond (illustrated by Thomas W. Nason). Ticknor & Fields, 1987.
• Poetry and Ambition. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1988.
• Here at Eagle Pond (illustrated by Thomas W. Nason). Ticknor & Fields, 1990.
• Life Work. Boston: Beacon Press, 1993.
• Death to the Death of Poetry: Essays, reviews, notes, interviews. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1994.
• Principle Products of Portugal: Prose pieces. Boston: Beacon Press, 1995.
• Breakfast Served Any Time All Day: Essays on poetry, new and selected. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
• The Best Day, the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon (memoir). Bsoton: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

Juvenile

• Andrew the Lion Farmer (illustrated by Jane Miller). New York: F. Watts, 1959.
  • (illustrated by Ann Reason). London: Methuen, 1961.
• Riddle Rat (illustrated by Mort Gerberg). London: Warne, 1977.
• Ox-Cart Man (illustrated by Barbara Cooney). New York: Viking, 1979.
• The Man Who Lived Alone (illustrated by Mary Azarian). New York: Godine, 1984.
• The Farm Summer 1942 (illustrated by Barry Moser). New York: Dial, 1994.
• I am the Dog, I am the Cat (illustrated by Barry Moser). New York: Dial, 1994.
• Summer of 1944, 1994.
• Lucy's Christmas (illustrated by Michael McCurdy). New York: Harcourt Brace, 1994.
• Lucy's Summer (illustrated by Michael McCurdy). New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995.
• When Willard Met Babe Ruth (illustrated by Barry Moser). New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996.
• Old Home Day (illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully). New York: Harcourt Brace, 1996.
• The Milkman's Boy (illustrated by Greg Shed). New York: Walker, 1997.

Edited

• The Harvard Advocate Anthology. New York: Twayne, 1950.
• The New Poets of England and America (edited with Robert Pack & Louis Simpson). Meridian Books, 1957.
• Whittier. New York: Dell, 1961.
• Contemporary American Poetry. London: Penguin, 1962; Baltimore: Penguin, 1963.
• New Poets of England and America: Second selection (with Robert Pack). Meridian Books, 1962.
• A Poetry Sampler. New York: F. Watts, 1962.
• The Concise Encyclopedia of English and American Poets and Poetry (edited with Stephen Spender). Hawthorn, 1963.
• Poetry in English (edited with Warren Taylor). New York: Macmillan, 1963.
• Walt Whitman, A Choice of Whitman's Verse. London: Faber & Faber, 1968.
• Man and Boy. New York: F. Watts, 1968.
• The Modern Stylists. New York: Free Press, 1968.
• American Poetry: An introductory anthology. London: Faber, 1969.
• A Writer's Reader (edited with D.L. Emblem). New York: Little, Brown, 1969; 9th edition, New York: Longman, 2002.
• The Pleasures of Poetry. New York: Harper, 1971.
• The Oxford Book of American Literary Anecdotes. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1981.
• To Read Literature: Fiction, poetry, drama. New York: Holt, 1981
• Claims for Poetry. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1982.
• To Read Poetry. New York: Holt, 1982;
  • revised as To Read a Poem. New York: Harcourt, 1992.
• The Contemporary Essay. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984.
• The Oxford Book of Children's Verse in America. Oxford University Press, 1985.
• To Read Fiction. New York: Holt, 1987.
• Anecdotes of Modern Art: From Rousseau to Warhol (edited with Pat Corrington Wykes). New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
• Andrew Marvell, The Essential Marvell. New York: Ecco Press, 1991.
• Edwin Arlington Robinson, The Essential Robinson. New York: Ecco Press, 1993.
• Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children's Poems. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation.

Audio / video

Donald Hall - Poetry readings 'Affirmation' (107 111)

Donald Hall - Poetry readings 'Her Garden' (108 111)

• The Poetry of Donald Hall (cassette). New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.
• The Pleasure of Poetry (LP). Spoken Arts, [1971?]
• Prose and Poetry (CD). Middletown, RI: Audio Bookshelf, 1997; Ashland, OR: Blackstone Audio, 2011.
• Donald Hall. New York: Academy of American Poets, 2004.
• Donald Hall: Recorded June 24, 2011, Wilmot, New Hampshire (CD). Andover, NH: Preservation Initiative, 2011.

Except where noted, discographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

• List of U.S. poets

Preceded by Richard Eberhart

New Hampshire Poet Laureate 1984-1989

Succeeded by Maxine Kumin

Preceded by Jane Kenyon

New Hampshire Poet Laureate 1995-1999

Succeeded by Marie Harris

External links

Poems

• "The Impossible Marriage" at the Oxford University Press blog
• "Ox Cart Man"
• Donald Hall profile & 8 poems at the Academy of American Poets
• Donald Hall b. 1928 at the Poetry Foundation
• Donald Hall at PoemHunter (19 poems)
• Drafts of Donald Hall’s Ox Cart Man

Audio / video

• Watch Donald Hall read "Self-Portrait as a Bear" at Open-Door Poetry
• Donald Hall at YouTube
• reading by Donald Hall of some of his poetry
• Donald Hall tells his life story at Web of Stories

Books

• Donald Hall at Amazon.com

About

• Donald Hall: Online Resources from the Library of Congress
  • More about Donald Hall at the LOC
• Donald Hall at NNDB
• "Donald Hall, Poet Laureate of the United States, talks with Robert Birnbaum" on Identity Theory website, posted December 18, 2006
• Judith Moore interviews Donald Hall
• Peter A. Stitt (Fall 1991). "Donald Hall, The Art of Poetry No. 43". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2163/the-art-of-poetry-no-43-donald-hall.