Donald Andrew Hall Jr. (September 20, 1928 – June 23, 2018) was an American poet, writer, editor and literary critic. He was the author of over 50 books across several genres from children's literature, biography, memoir, essays, and including 22 volumes of verse. Hall was a graduate of

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, and

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Early in his career, he became the first poetry editor of ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phi ...

'' (1953–1961), the quarterly literary journal, and was noted for interviewing poets and other authors on their craft. On June 14, 2006, Hall was appointed as the Library of Congress's 14th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (commonly known as "Poet Laureate of the United States"). He is regarded as a "plainspoken, rural poet," and it has been said that, in his work, he "explores the longing for a more bucolic past and reflects nabiding reverence for nature."Poetry Foundation (Chicago, Illinois). Biography: Donald Hall (found onlin
here
(Retrieved November 20, 2012). Hall was respected for his work as an academic, having taught at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, Bennington College and the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and having made significant contributions to the study and craft of writing.

Life and career

Early life and education

Hall was born in Hamden, Connecticut, the only child of Donald Andrew Hall, a businessman, and Lucy Wells. He was educated at

, then earned an A.B.

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

from

in 1951, where he was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

, and a

B.Litt. Bachelor of Letters (BLitt or LittB; Latin ' or ') is a second undergraduate university degree in which students specialize in an area of study relevant to their own personal, professional, or academic development. This area of study may have been t ...

, from

in 1953. Hall received an honorary PhD, Lit. from

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

in 1991. Hall began writing even before reaching his teens, beginning with poems and short stories, and then moving on to novels and dramatic verse. Hall continued to write throughout his prep school years at Exeter, and, while still only sixteen years old, attended the

Bread Loaf Writers' Conference The Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is an author's conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1926, it has been called by '' The New Yorker'' "the oldest and most ...

, where he made his first acquaintance with the poet

Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost (March26, 1874January29, 1963) was an American poet. His work was initially published in England before it was published in the United States. Known for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American collo ...

. That same year, he published his first work. While an undergraduate at Harvard, Hall served on the editorial board of '' The Harvard Advocate'', and got to know a number of people who, like him, were poised with significant ambitions in the literary world, amongst them

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

, Robert Bly, Kenneth Koch,

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

, and Adrienne Rich. During his senior year, he won the Glascock Prize that Koch had won 3 years earlier. After leaving Harvard, Hall went to Oxford for two years, to study for the B.Litt. He was editor of the magazine '' Oxford Poetry'', as literary editor of Isis, as editor of New Poems, and as poetry editor of ''

''. At the end of his first Oxford year, Hall also won the university's Newdigate Prize, awarded for his long poem, 'Exile'. In September 1952, he married his first wife, Kirby Thompson, with whom he had his son and daughter. On returning to the United States, Hall went to

, where he spent one year as a Creative Writing Fellow, studying under the poet-critic, Yvor Winters. Following his year at Stanford, Hall went back to Harvard, where he spent three years in the Society of Fellows. During that time, he put together his first book, ''Exiles and Marriages''. In 1957, with Robert Pack and Louis Simpson, he edited an anthology which was to make a significant impression on both sides of the Atlantic, '' New Poets of England and America.'' It was later juxtaposed with Donald Allen's ''

The New American Poetry 1945–1960 ''The New American Poetry 1945–1960'' is a poetry anthology edited by Donald Allen and published in 1960. It aimed to pick out the "third generation" of American modernist poets, and included quite a number of poems fresh from the little magaz ...

''. In 1968, he signed the " Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. While teaching at the

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all ...

, he met the poet

Jane Kenyon Jane Kenyon (May 23, 1947 – April 22, 1995) was an American poet and translator. Her work is often characterized as simple, spare, and emotionally resonant. Kenyon was the second wife of poet, editor, and critic Donald Hall who made her the subj ...

, whom he married in 1972. Three years later, the couple moved to Eagle Pond Farm, his grandparents' former home in

Wilmot, New Hampshire Wilmot is a town in Merrimack County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,407 at the 2020 census. The town includes the communities of Wilmot, Wilmot Flat, and North Wilmot. History Incorporated in 1807 from part of New London, ...

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

Bill Moyers Journal ''Bill Moyers Journal'' was an American television current affairs program that covered an array of current affairs and human issues, including economics, history, literature, religion, philosophy, science, and most frequently politics. Bill Moy ...

''. In 1989, when Hall was in his early sixties, 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 one-in-three chance of surviving the next five years. Then, early in 1994, it was discovered that Kenyon had leukemia. Her illness, her death fifteen months later, and Hall's struggle to come to terms with these things, were the subject of his 1998 book, ''Without''. Another book of poems dedicated to Kenyon, ''Painted Bed'', is cited by ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' 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 first 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?'" Hall served as a member of the editorial board for poetry at the

Wesleyan University Press Wesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist. History and overview Founded (in its present form ...

from 1958 to 1964. He was closely affiliated with the Bennington College's graduate writing program since 1994, giving lectures and readings annually.

Career

Donald Hall receiving his National Medal of Arts

Hall published fifteen books of poetry, most recently ''White Apples and the Taste of Stone'' (2006), ''The Painted Bed'' (2002) and ''Without: Poems'' (1998), which was published on the third anniversary of Kenyon's death. Most of the poems in ''Without'' deal with Kenyon's illness and death, and many are epistolary poems. In addition to poetry, he also wrote several memoirs (among them ''Life Work'' and ''String Too Short to be Saved''), children's books (notably '' Ox-Cart Man'', which won the Caldecott Medal), and a number of plays. His recurring themes include

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

rural living, baseball, and how work conveys meaning to ordinary life. He is regarded as a master both of received

forms Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data * ...

and

free verse Free verse is an open form of poetry, which in its modern form arose through the French '' vers libre'' form. It does not use consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any musical pattern. It thus tends to follow the rhythm of natural speech. Defi ...

, and a champion of the art of revision, for whom writing is a craft, not merely a mode of self-expression. Hall won many awards, including two

Guggenheim Fellowships Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative abi ...

and a

Medal, and served as

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

of his state. He lived and worked at Eagle Pond Farm. When not working on poems, he turned his hand to reviews, criticism, textbooks, sports journalism, memoirs, biographies, children's stories, and plays. He also devoted a lot of time to editing: between 1983 and 1996 he oversaw publication of more than sixty titles for the University of Michigan Press alone. He was for five years

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

of his home state,

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

(1984–89), and among the many other honours and awards to have come his way were: the

Lamont Poetry Prize The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...

for ''Exiles and Marriages'' (1955), the Edna St Vincent Millay Award (1956), two Guggenheim Fellowships (1963–64, 1972–73), inclusion on the Horn Book Honour List (1986), the Sarah Josepha Hale Award (1983), the

Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreac ...

(1987), the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry (1988), the NBCC Award (1989), the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

Book Prize in poetry (1989), and the Frost Medal (1990). He was nominated for the

National Book Award The National Book Awards are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. The Nat ...

on three separate occasions (1956, 1979 and 1993). In 1994, he received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for his lifetime achievement. Hall was named the fourteenth U.S. Poet Laureate, succeeding Ted Kooser. He served from October 1, 2006, and was succeeded by Charles Simic the following year. At the time of his appointment, Hall was profiled in episode of ''

The News Hour with Jim Lehrer ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of i ...

'' which aired on October 16, 2006. Hall was awarded the 2010

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and arts patrons ...

by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

. Hall's penultimate work is a 2018 recording of an eleven-song cycle on the topic of mortality, entitled "Mortality Mansions: Songs of Love and Loss After 60." The poems are by Hall and are read by the author, the music is by Grammy Award-winning composer Herschel Garfein. His last book ''A Carnival of Losses: Essays Nearing Ninety'' was published on July 10, 2018.

Film

Donald Hall was the subject of a short documentary by Paul Szynol called ''Quiet Hours''. He also appeared in Ken Burns's 1994 documentary on baseball.

Personal life

Hall lived at Eagle Pond Farm in Wilmot, New Hampshire, a small town in

Merrimack County Merrimack County is a county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 153,808, making it the third-most populous county in New Hampshire. Its county seat is Concord, the state capital. The county was or ...

. He was married to poet and author

(1947–1995) for 23 years and lived with her until her death. Hall died on June 23, 2018, at the age of 89 at his home in Wilmot.

Selected awards and honors

* 1952: Newdigate Prize * 1955:

, for ''Exiles and Marriages'' * 1956: Edna St. Vincent Millay Award * 1956: Nomination for the

* 1963–1964:

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

* 1972–1973: Guggenheim Fellowship * 1979: Nomination for the National Book Award * 1984–1989: Poet Laureate of New Hampshire * 1983: Sarah Josepha Hale Award * 1986: ''Horn Book'' Honour List * 1987:

Lenore Marshall Lenore Guinzberg Marshall (September 7, 1899, New York City – September 23, 1971, Doylestown, Pennsylvania) was an American poet, novelist, and activist. Life She was the daughter of Harry and Leonie (Kleinert) Guinzburg. She graduated from Bar ...

Poetry Prize * 1988: National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry * 1989: ''

'' Book Prize in poetry * 1990:

Robert Frost Medal The Poetry Society of America is a literary organization founded in 1910 by poets, editors, and artists. It is the oldest poetry organization in the United States. Past members of the society have included such renowned poets as Witter Bynner, Ro ...

from the Poetry Society of America * 1991: Honorary Doctor of Letters (in honoris causa) from

. * 1993: Nomination for the National Book Award * 1994: Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for his lifetime achievement. * 1999: L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award for ''Without: Poems'' * 2006–2007: Fourteenth U.S. Poet Laureate * 2010:

Bibliography

Poetry

* 1952: ''Exile'' * 1952: ''Fantasy Poets Number Four'' * 1955: ''Exiles and Marriages'' * 1957: '' New Poets of England and America'' * 1958: ''The Dark Houses'' * 1964: ''A Roof of Tiger Lilies'' * 1969: ''The Alligator Bride'' * 1971: ''The Yellow Room: Love Poems'' * 1975: ''The Town of Hill'' * 1975: ''A Blue Wing Tilts at the Edge of the Sea: Selected Poems, 1964–1974'' * 1978: ''Kicking the Leaves'' * 1979: ''The Toy Bone'' * 1981: ''The Wilderness Years'' * 1986: ''The Happy Man'' * 1988: '' The One Day'' * 1990: ''Old and New Poems'' * 1993: ''The Museum of Clear Ideas'' * 1996: ''The Old Life'' * 1998: ''Without'' * 2000: ''Two by Two'' (with Richard Wilbur) * 2002: ''The Painted Bed'' * 2006: ''White Apples and the Taste of Stone'' * 2011: ''The Back Chamber'' * 2015: ''The Selected Poems of Donald Hall''

Essays

* 1978: ''Goatfoot Milktongue Twinbird: Interviews, Essays, and Notes on Poetry, 1970-76'' * 1983: ''The Weather for Poetry: Essays, Reviews, and Notes on Poetry, 1977-81'' * 1985: ''Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sports (Mostly Baseball)'' * 1988: ''Poetry and Ambition: Essays 1982-88'' * 1995: ''Death to the Death of Poetry: Essays, Reviews, Notes, Interviews'' * 1995: ''Principal Products of Portugal: Prose Pieces'' * 2014: ''Essays After Eighty'' * 2018: ''A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety'' (published posthumously)

Biography

* 1966: ''

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Mo ...

'' * 1976: ''Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball'' * 1978: ''Remembering Poets: Reminiscences and Opinions'' * 1992: ''Their Ancient Glittering Eyes'' Full titles imply a biographical memoir covering four poets, expanded to cover seven. * ''Remembering Poets: Reminiscences and Opinions: Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound'' * ''Their Ancient Glittering Eyes: Remembering Poets and More Poets: Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Archibald MacLeish, Yvor Winters, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound''

Drama

* 1965: ''An Evening's Frost'' * 1975: ''

Bread and Roses "Bread and Roses" is a political slogan as well as the name of an associated poem and song. It originated from a speech given by American women's suffrage activist Helen Todd; a line in that speech about "bread for all, and roses too" inspired ...

'' * 1983: ''Ragged Mountain Elegies''

For children

* 1959: ''Andrew the Lion Farmer'' * 1977: ''Riddle Rat'' * 1979: '' Ox-Cart Man'' (illustrated by

Barbara Cooney Barbara Cooney (August 6, 1917 – March 10, 2000) was an American writer and illustrator of 110 children's books, published over sixty years. She received two Caldecott Medals for her work on ''Chanticleer and the Fox'' (1958) and '' Ox-Cart Ma ...

) * 1981: ''The Mooch, A Canine Adventure'' * 1984: ''The Man Who Lived Alone'' * 1994: ''The Farm Summer 1942'' (illustrated by

Barry Moser Barry Moser (born 1940) is an American artist and educator, known as a printmaker specializing in wood engravings, and an illustrator of numerous works of literature. He is also the owner and operator of the Pennyroyal Press, an engraving and smal ...

) * 1994: ''I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat'' (illustrated by Barry Moser) * 1994: ''Summer of 1944'' * 1994: ''Lucy's Christmas'' * 1995: ''Lucy's Summer'' * 1995: ''The Pageant'' (illustrated by Barry Moser) * 1996: ''Old Home Day'' * 1996: ''When Willard Met Babe Ruth'' * 1997: ''The Milkman's Boy''

Short stories

* 1987: ''The Ideal Bakery'' * 2003: '' From Willow Temple''

Memoirs

* 1961: ''String too Short to Be Saved'' * 1987: ''Seasons at Eagle Pond'' * 1992: ''Here at Eagle Pond'' * 1993: ''Life Work'' * 2005: ''The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon'' * 2007: ''On Eagle Pond'' * 2008: ''Unpacking the Boxes: A Memoir of a Life in Poetry''

Textbooks

* 1981: ''To Read Literature'' * 1992: ''To Read a Poem'' * 1994: ''Writing Well'' (later editions with Sven Birkerts)

Recorded

* 2018: ''Mortality Mansions: Songs of Love and Loss after 60'' (with Herschel Garfein, Michael Slattery, and Marnie Breckenridge)

Notes

References

External links

*
Donald Hall, Poet Laureate of the United States, talks with Robert Birnbaum
on ''Identity Theory'' website, posted December 18, 2006
"Between Solitude and Loneliness"
by Donald Hall, ''New Yorker'', October 15, 2016

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Donald 1928 births 2018 deaths Alumni of the University of Oxford American male poets American Poets Laureate American tax resisters Glascock Prize winners Harvard Advocate alumni Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Poets from New Hampshire United States National Medal of Arts recipients University of Michigan faculty Wesleyan University people Writers from New Haven, Connecticut People from Wilmot, New Hampshire