Related Resources at the Library
- Listen to Donald Hall read "Mount Kearsarge."
- Watch Donald Hall at the 2005 National Book Festival.
- Guide to Donald Hall Online
Donald Hall was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1928. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1951, and in 1953 his bachelor's in literature from Oxford University. For the past thirty years he has lived on Eagle Pond Farm in rural New Hampshire, in the house where his grandmother and mother were born. He has two children from his first marriage and five grandchildren. Hall was married for 23 years to the poet Jane Kenyon, who died in 1995. In 1998, he published "Without" (Houghton Mifflin), a collection of poems expressing his grief over Kenyon's death: "The mosaic of a whole period, with all its inner moods and its physical accessories, is masterfully accomplished" (New York Review of Books).
Hall has published 15 books of poetry, beginning with "Exiles and Marriages" in 1955. Earlier this year, he published "White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems 1946–2006" (Houghton Mifflin), a volume of his essential life's work. Among his books for children, "Ox-Cart Man" won the Caldecott Medal. His 20 books of prose include "Willow Temple: New and Selected Stories" (2003), "The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon" (2005), and a collection of his essays about poetry, "Breakfast Served Any Time All Day" (2003). He has written extensively about life in New Hampshire ― "Seasons at Eagle Pond" (1987) and "Here at Eagle Pond" (2000). He is currently working on a third volume, "Eagle Pond," scheduled for publication in 2007.
For his poetry, Donald Hall received the Marshall/Nation Award in 1987 for his "The Happy Man"; both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award in 1988 for "The One Day"; the Lily Prize for Poetry in 1994; and two Guggenheim Fellowships. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Books of poetry by Donald Hall
Exiles and Marriages (1955)
The Dark Houses (1958)
A Roof of Tiger Lilies (1964)
The Alligator Bride (1969)
The Yellow Room (1971)
The Town of Hill (1975)
Kicking the Leaves (1978)
The Happy Man (1986)
The One Day (1988)
Old and New Poems (1990)
The Museum of Clear Ideas (1993)
The Old Life (1996)
Without (1998)
The Painted Bed (2002)
White Apples and the Taste of Stone (2006)
Books of prose by Donald Hall include
String Too Short to Be Saved (1961)
Henry Moore: The Life and Work of a Great Sculptor (1966)
Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball (1976)
Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sport, Mostly Baseball (1985)
The Ideal Bakery: Stories (1987)
Seasons at Eagle Pond (1987)
Here at Eagle Pond: Essays (1990)
Their Ancient Glittering Eyes: Remembering Poets and More Poets:
Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Archbald MacLeish,
Yvor Winters, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound (1992)
Life Work (1993)
Principal Products of Portugal: Prose Pieces (1995)
Willow Temple: New and Selected Stories (2003)
The Best Day the Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon (2005)