Donald Hall (born September 20, 1928) is an American poet and the U.S. Poet Laureate. September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... A poet is someone who writes poetry. ... The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress is appointed by the United States Librarian of Congress and earns a stipend of $35,000 a year. ...

Life

Hall was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1928, an only child of Donald Andrew Hall (a businessman) and his wife Lucy (née Wells) of Hamden, Connecticut. He was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, then earned a bachelor's degree from Harvard in 1951 and a B.Litt from Oxford in 1953. Hall received a Litt.D from Bates College in 1991. Nickname: The Elm City Location in Connecticut Coordinates: NECTA New Haven Region South Central Region Settled 1638 Incorporated (city) 1784 Consolidated 1895 Government type Mayor-board of aldermen Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. ... Hamden is a town located in New Haven County, Connecticut. ... Phillips Exeter Academy (also called Exeter, Phillips Exeter, or PEA) is a co-educational independent boarding school for grades 9-12, located on 619 acres in Exeter, New Hampshire, USA, fifty miles north of Boston. ... Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... This article is about the city of Oxford in England. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... For other uses, see Bates (disambiguation), Bates (surname) Bates College is a private liberal arts college, founded in 1855 by abolitionists, located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. ...

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, where he made his first acquaintance with the poet Robert Frost. 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, Robert Bly, Kenneth Koch, Frank O'Hara, and Adrienne Rich, whom he dated briefly. During his senior year, he won the prestigious Glascock Prize that Koch had won 3 years earlier. The Bread Loaf Writers Conference is the oldest writers conference in the United States. ... Robert Frost (1941) Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. ... The Harvard Advocate, the premier literary magazine of Harvard College, the undergraduate component of Harvard University, is the oldest continuously published college literary magazine in the United States. ... John Ashbery John Ashbery (born July 28, 1927) is an American poet. ... Robert Bly (born December 23, 1926 in Madison, Minnesota) is a poet, author, and leader of the Mythopoetic Mens Movement in the United States. ... Kenneth Koch (27 February 1925 - 6 July 2002) was an American poet, playwright, and professor, active from the 1950s until his death at age 77. ... Francis Russell OHara (June 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American poet who, along with John Ashbery, James Schuyler and Kenneth Koch, was a key member of what was known as the New York School of poetry. ... Image:AdrienneRich. ... The Glascock Poetry Prize is awarded to the winner of the the annual Kathryn Irene Glascock Intercollegiate Poetry Contest at Mount Holyoke College, the oldest intercollegiate poetry competition in the United States [1]. // The contest Each year, about six young poets from the nations top colleges and universities are selected...

After leaving Harvard, Hall went to Oxford for two years, to study for the B.Litt. He was editor of the Oxford Poetry Society's journal, as literary editor of Isis, as editor of New Poems, and as poetry editor of The Paris Review. At the end of his first Oxford year, Hall also won the university's prestigious Newdigate Prize, awarded for his long poem, 'Exile'. The Paris Review is a literary magazine started in 1953 by Peter Matthiessen, Thomas H. Guinzburg, and Harold L. Humes, and edited until his death in 2003 by George Plimpton. ... Sir Roger Newdigates Prize is awarded to students of the University of Oxford for Best Composition in English verse by an undergraduate who has not yet been in attendance at Oxford for four years since his or her date of admittance. ...

On returning to the United States, Hall went to Stanford, 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, and with Robert Pack and Louis Simpson edited an anthology which was to make a significant impression on both sides of the Atlantic, The New Poets of England and America. While teaching at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan he met poet Jane Kenyon, whom he married in 1972. Three years after they were wed, they moved to Eagle Pond Farm, his grandparents' former home in Wilmot, New Hampshire. Arthur Yvor Winters (October 17, 1900 - January 26, 1968) was an American literary critic and poet, noted as a critic of poetry and embroiled in controversy. ... Louis Simpson (born March 27, 1923 in Jamaica) is a United States poet. ... The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (UM or U of M) is a coeducational public research university in the U.S. state of Michigan. ... For the railroad company, see Ann Arbor Railroad. ... Jane Kenyon (May 23, 1947 - April 22, 1995) was an American poet and translator. ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Wilmot is a town located in Merrimack County, New Hampshire. ...

In 1989, when Hall was sixty-one, 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. His most recent book, Painted Bed, was published in 2002.

Hall has been closely affiliated with the Bennington College's graduate writing program since 1994, giving lectures and readings annually. Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont. ...

Career

To date, Hall has published fifteen books of poetry, most recently White Apples and the Taste of Stone, The Painted Bed (2002) and Without: Poems (1998), which was published on the third anniversary of Jane 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 has also written several collections of essays (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 rural living, baseball, and how work conveys meaning to ordinary life. He is regarded as a master both of poetic forms and free verse, and a champion of the art of revision, for whom writing is first and foremost a craft, not merely a mode of self-expression. Hall has won many awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships and a Robert Frost Medal, and has served as poet laureate of his state. He continues to live and work at Eagle Pond Farm. Jane Kenyon (May 23, 1947 - April 22, 1995) was an American poet and translator. ... The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. ... This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... A view of the playing field at Busch Stadium II St. ... Plato spoke of forms (sometimes capitalized: The Forms) in formulating his solution to the problem of universals. ... Free verse (also at times referred to as vers libre) is a term describing various styles of poetry that are not written using strict meter or rhyme, but that still are recognizable as poetry by virtue of complex patterns of one sort or another that readers can perceive to be... Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... Robert Frost (1941) Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963) was an American poet. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

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 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 of his home state, New Hampshire (1984-89), and can list among the many other honours and awards to have come his way: the Lamont Poetry Prize 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 (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 three separate occasions (1956, 1979 and 1993). In 1994, he received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for his lifetime achievement. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... The James Laughlin Award is given annually by the Academy of American Poets to recognize a poets second published book. ... Established in 1975, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize is (currently) a $25,000 award recognizing the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States in the previous year. ... The Los Angeles Times (also known as the LA Times) is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California and distributed throughout the Western United States. ... The Frost Medal is an award of the Poetry Society of America for lifetime achievement. ... The National Book Award is one of the most important literary prizes in the United States, presented annually for the best books by living U.S. citizens published in the U.S. The awards have been presented since 1950 in at least one category, and are presently awarded in each... The Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize is awarded annually by The Poetry Foundation; the Foundation also publishes Poetry. ...

On June 13, 2006, it was announced that Hall would be named the 14th U.S. Poet Laureate, succeeding Ted Kooser.^[1] He took over the post on the first of October 2006. The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress is appointed by the United States Librarian of Congress and earns a stipend of $35,000 a year. ... Ted Kooser (b. ...

Selected Bibliography

Poetry

• Exiles and Marriages (1955)
• The Dark Houses (1958)
• A Roof of Tiger Lilies (1964)
• The Alligator Bride (1969)
• The Yellow Room: Love Poems (1971)
• 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)
• The Happy Man (1986)
• The One Day (1988)
• Old and New Poems (1990)
• Here at Eagle Pond (1992)
• The Museum of Clear Ideas (1993)
• The Old Life (1996)
• Without (1998)
• The Painted Bed (2002)
• White Apples and the Taste of Stone (2006)

Prose

• The Best Day, The Worst Day: Life with Jane Kenyon (2005)
• String Too Short to Be Saved: Recollections of Summers on a New England Farm (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 (1974)
• Dock Ellis in the Country of Baseball (1976)
• Goatfoot Milktongue Twinbird: Interviews, Essays, and Notes on Poetry, 1970-76 (1978)
• Remembering Poets: Reminiscences and Opinions – Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound (1978)
• To Read Literature (1980)
• The Weather for Poetry: Essays, Reviews, and Notes on Poetry, 1977-81 (1982)
• Seasons at Eagle Pond (1987)
• Poetry and Ambition (1988)
• Life Work (1993)
• Old Home Day (1994)
• Death to the Death of Poetry: Essays, Reviews, Notes, Interviews (1994)
• The Farm Summer, 1942 (1994)
• Principal Products of Portugal: Prose Pieces (1995)

Drama

• An Evening's Frost (1965)
• Bread and Roses (1975)
• Ragged Mountain Elegies (1983)

Essays

• To Keep Moving: Essays, 1959-1969 (1980)
• Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sport (Mostly Baseball) (1985)
• Winter (1986)

For children

• Andrew and the Lion Farmer (1959)
• Riddle Rat (1977)
• Ox-Cart Man (1979)
• The Man Who Lived Alone (1984)
• I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat (1994)
• Summer of 1944 (1994)
• Lucy's Christmas (1994)
• Lucy's Summer (1995)
• Old Home Day (1996)
• When Willard Met Babe Ruth (1996)
• The Milkman's Boy (1997)

Ox-Cart Man (ISBN 0-14-050441-9) is the title of a 1979 book written by Donald Hall and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. ...

Letters

• The Ideal Bakery (1987)

References

1. ^ Wang, Beverley. "Donald Hall named nation's poet laureate", Associated Press, 14 June 2006.

June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• Resources on Donald Hall from the Library of Congress
• Donald Hall's page at Poets.org
• "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
• Flying Revision's Flag: Martin Lammon interviews Donald Hall
• Review Of Hall's Career
• Review of Hall’s The Man In The Dead Machine
• 1990 audio interview with Donald Hall by Don Swaim of CBS Radio - RealAudio
• The Impossible Marriage by Donald Hall at the Oxford University Press blog
• Video of Donald Hall at the Peoples Archive
• The Paris Review Interview with Donald Hall