Donald Hall
Donald Hall was an influential American poet, essayist, and children's author, recognized for his profound exploration of themes such as isolation, loss, and the complexities of human experience. Born into a prosperous family, he received a prestigious education, attending institutions like Harvard and Oxford before pursuing a successful academic career. Hall's poetic debut, *Exiles and Marriages*, garnered significant acclaim, earning him various prestigious awards throughout his career, including the Lamont Prize and the Caldecott Medal for his acclaimed children's book *Ox-Cart Man*. His literary contributions also extend to essays and critical works, showcasing his versatility as a writer and editor.
During his lifetime, Hall served as the poet laureate of New Hampshire and later as the United States poet laureate. His later works, particularly following the death of his second wife, Jane Kenyon, reflect a deep engagement with grief and memory. He continued to publish and teach until his passing in 2018 at the age of 89. Hall's legacy remains significant in American literature, both for his poignant poetry and his contributions to literary criticism and education.
Donald Hall
American poet, author, editor, and critic.
- Born: September 20, 1928
- Birthplace: New Haven, Connecticut
- Died: June 23, 2018
- Place of death: Wilmot, New Hampshire
Biography
Donald Andrew Hall Jr., was born into a prosperous family and attended Philips Exeter Academy from 1944 to 1947 before entering Harvard University, where he received his AB in 1951. From there he went to Oxford University, where he received the B.Litt. in 1953, followed by further graduate work in 1953–1954 at Stanford University, where he was a Fellow in Creative Writing. From 1954 to 1957 he was a junior fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard, after which he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan. In 1975 he left the university to return to his family home at Eagle Pond Farm in New Hampshire.
Before the appearance of his first volume of poetry, Hall received the Lloyd McKim Garrison Prize for poetry at Harvard in 1951, the John Osborne Sergeant Prize for Latin translation at Harvard in 1951, and the Newdigate Prize for poetry at Oxford in 1952. His initial volume of poems, Exiles and Marriages, earned him the Lamont Prize of the Academy of American Poets in 1955, as well as the Edna St. Vincent Millay Memorial Award, for the same year. He also found success with children’s literature, with his book Ox-Cart Man winning the Caldecott Medal in 1979. Hall would also eventually receive two Guggenheim Fellowships, as well as a number of other awards for his poetry such as a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Robert Frost medal of the Poetry Society of America, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. From 1984 to 1989 he was the state poet laureate of New Hampshire. In 2011 he received the 2010 National Medal of Arts, the US government’s highest award for artists and art patrons, from President Barack Obama.
As a poet Hall wrote of a growing isolation from both humanity and the physical world. His poems reflect a regret for the past and a reluctance to praise the present, and in many he contemplates the problem of human freedom in the world. As a writer of prose Hall became one of the foremost authors in the United States in the late twentieth century. His essay collections include memoirs, interviews, critical studies of writers and artists, and commentaries on subjects ranging from literary history to sports. Hall’s children’s books include the best-selling The Ox-Cart Man, which won the Caldecott Medal.
Hall made his mark as an editor and critic as well as poet and teacher. During the years 1953 to 1961 he was poetry editor for the Paris Review; from 1958 to 1964 he was on the poetry board for Wesleyan University Press; and after 1964 he was a consultant for poetry with the publishing firm of Harper and Row. In 1967 he became one of the judges for the Lamont Poetry Competition, and his editions of contemporary poets came to be widely used in college classes and by general readers. He also served as general editor for the Poets on Poetry series put out by the University of Michigan Press, a series to which he himself contributed several volumes.
Some critics identified a shift in tone in Hall’s works after the death of his second wife, the poet Jane Kenyon, in 1995 from leukemia. Poetry collections such as Without: Poems (1998) and The Painted Bed (2002) fully take on the emotional impact of death, loss, and grief. Hall also published a memoir about his marriage, The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon, in 2005. In 2006 he was appointed as the fourteenth poet laureate of the United States, a position he held for a year. He continued to publish poetry, essays, and criticism into the 2010s.
Hall died at his home in Wilmot, New Hampshire, on June 23, 2018. He was eighty-nine years old. He is survived by two children from his first marriage, Philippa Smith and Andrew Hall; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Author Works
Poetry:
Fantasy Poets No. 4, 1952
Exile, 1952
To the Loud Wind, and Other Poems, 1955
Exiles and Marriages, 1955
The Dark Houses, 1958
A Roof of Tiger Lilies, 1964
The Alligator Bride: Poems New and Selected, 1969
The Yellow Room: Love Poems, 1971
The Gentlemen’s Alphabet Book, 1972
The Town of Hill, 1975
A Blue Wing Tilts at the Edge of the Sea: Selected Poems, 1964–1974, 1975
Kicking the Leaves, 1978
The Toy Bone, 1979
Brief Lives: Seven Epigrams, 1983
The Twelve Seasons, 1983
Great Day in the Cow’s House, 1984
The Happy Man, 1986
The One Day, 1988
Old and New Poems, 1990
The One Day, and Poems, 1947-1990, 1991
The Museum of Clear Ideas, 1993
The Old Life, 1996
Without: Poems, 1998
The Purpose of a Chair, 2000
The Painted Bed, 2002
White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Poems, 1946–2006, 2006
The Selected Poems of Donald Hall, 2015
Short Fiction:
The Ideal Bakery, 1987
Willow Temple: New and Selected Stories, 2003
Drama:
An Evening’s Frost, pr. 1965
Bread and Roses, pr. 1975
The Bone Ring, pr. 1986, pb. 1987
Nonfiction:
String Too Short to Be Saved, 1961
Henry Moore: The Life and Work of a Great Sculptor, 1966
As the Eye Moves: A Sculpture by Henry Moore, 1970
Marianne Moore: The Cage and the Animal, 1970
The Pleasures of Poetry, 1971
Writing Well, 1973
Playing Around: The Million Dollar Infield Goes to Florida, 1974 (with others)
Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball, 1976 (with Dock Ellis)
Remembering Poets: Reminiscences and Opinions, 1978
Goatfoot Milktongue Twinbird, 1978
To Keep Moving: Essays, 1959–1969, 1980
To Read Literature, 1980
The Weather for Poetry, 1982
Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sport (Mostly Baseball), 1984
Seasons at Eagle Pond, 1987
Poetry and Ambition: Essays, 1982-88, 1988
Here at Eagle Pond, 1990
Their Ancient Glittering Eyes: Remembering Poets and More Poets, 1992
Life Work, 1993
Death to the Death of Poetry: Essays, Reviews, Notes, Interviews, 1994
Principal Products of Portugal: Prose Pieces, 1995
Donald Hall in Conversation with Ian Hamilton, 2000
Breakfast Served Any Time All Day: Essays on Poetry New and Selected, 2003
The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon, 2005
Unpacking the Boxes: A Memoir of Life in Poetry, 2009
Essays After Eighty, 2014
A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety, 2018
Children’s/Young Adult Literature:
Andrew the Lion Farmer, 1959
Riddle Rat, 1977
Ox-Cart Man, 1979
The Man Who Lived Alone, 1984
The Farm Summer 1942, 1994
I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat, 1994
Lucy’s Christmas, 1994
Lucy’s Summer, 1995
When Willard Met Babe Ruth, 1996
Old Home Day, 1996
The Milkman’s Boy, 1997
Edited Text:
The Harvard Advocate Anthology, 1950
The New Poets of England and America, 1957 (with Robert Pack and Louis Simpson)
Whittier, 1961
Contemporary American Poetry, 1962
New Poets of England and America: Second Selection, 1962 (with Robert Pack)
A Poetry Sampler, 1962
The Concise Encyclopedia of English and American Poets and Poetry, 1963 (with Stephen Spender)
Poetry in English, 1963 (with Warren Taylor)
A Choice of Whitman’s Verse, 1968
Man and Boy, 1968
The Modern Stylists, 1968
American Poetry: An Introduction Anthology, 1969
A Writer’s Reader, 1969 (with D. L. Emblem)
The Pleasures of Poetry, 1971
The Oxford Book of American Literary Anecdotes, 1981
To Read Literature: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, 1981
Claims for Poetry, 1982
To Read Poetry, 1982
The Contemporary Essay, 1984
To Read Fiction, 1987
Anecdotes of Modern Art: From Rosseau to Warhol, 1990 (with Pat Corrington Wykes)
The Essential Marvell, 1991
The Essential Robinson, 1993
The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems, 1999
Bibliography
Davie, Donald. “Frost, Eliot, Thomas, Pound.” The New York Times Book Review (February 19, 1978): 15, 33. Reviews Hall’s book Remembering Poets and Hall’s notion of the poet in contemporary culture. Praises him for humanizing the poetic endeavor, but takes issue with some evaluations.
“Donald Hall.” Poetry Foundation, 2016, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/donald-hall. Accessed 22 Mar. 2017. Presents a biography of Hall along with a bibliography of works by and about the poet.
Hall, Donald. Donald Hall in Conversation with Ian Hamilton. London: Between the Lines, 2000. This book reprints many interviews of Hall by Ian Hamilton originally published in periodicals.
Hansen, Tom. “On Writing Poetry: Four Contemporary Poets.” College English 44 (March, 1982): 265–273. Focuses on Goatfoot Milktongue Twinbird and Hall’s statement of faith in the poet’s vocation. Explains his use of the title words in his psychomythology, his concept of the poet-priest-scholar, and the sensuous enjoyment of reading poetry.
Kirby, David. “Donald Hall, a Poet Laureate of the Rural Life, Is Dead at 89.” The New York Times, 24 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/24/obituaries/donald-hall-a-poet-laureate-of-the-rural-life-is-dead-at-89.html. Accessed 2 July 2018.
Moyers, Bill. “A Life Together.” Video in The Moyers Collection/Bill Moyers Journal, produced by David Grubin. Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities, 1993. One hour-long interview with Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon about poetry, the creative process, and a life together.
Rector, Liam. “About Donald Hall.” Ploughshares 27, nos. 2/3 (Fall, 2001): 270–274. Rector briefly profiles Hall’s life and work.
Rector, Liam, ed. The Day I Was Older: On the Poetry of Donald Hall. Santa Cruz, Calif.: Story Line, 1989. The first book-length study of Hall’s work, this volume includes essays of criticism and commentary by Robert Bly, W. D. Snodgrass, and other contemporary poets. Contains fifteen of Hall’s poems, photographs, an interview, book reviews, and a bibliography of Hall’s work.
Spencer, Brent. “The Country of Donald Hall: A Review Essay.” Poet and Critic 12 (1980): 30–38. Spencer reviews Goatfoot Milktongue Twinbird and several poetry books, explaining how Hall’s concept of the poet as maker and mystic grants him enormous freedoms. The essay contains some excellent discussions of individual poems and a general statement about the nature of Hall’s poetry.
Ullman, Leslie. Review of Without, by Donald Hall. Poetry 173, no. 4 (February, 1999): 312–314. Ullman discusses Without, an autobiographical work dealing with the fifteen months during which Hall’s wife, the poet Jane Kenyon, battled leukemia, and with the following year of mourning.