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
Phillips Exeter Academy, then earned an
A.B. magna cum laude from
Harvard in 1951, where he was elected to
Phi Beta Kappa, and a
B.Litt., from
Christ Church, Oxford in 1953. Hall began writing even before reaching his teens, beginning with poems and short stories, and then moving on to novels and dramatic verse. He 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, Hall published his first work. While an undergraduate at Harvard, he 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. During his senior year, Hall 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, literary editor of
Isis, editor of
New Poems, and poetry editor of
The Paris Review. At the end of his first Oxford year, he 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 a son and daughter. Upon returning to the U.S., Hall went to
Stanford University for one year as a creative writing fellow, studying under the poet-critic
Yvor Winters. Hall then returned to Harvard, where he spent 1954–1957 in the Society of Fellows. During that time, he published his first book of poems,
Exiles and Marriages. In 1957, he co-edited with
Robert Pack and
Louis Simpson a poetry anthology that was to make a significant impression on both sides of the Atlantic,
New Poets of England and America. Its preference for formal, academic verse was later contrasted with
Donald Allen's 1960 anthology,
The New American Poetry 1945–1960, which emphasized experimental verse. From 1958 to 1964, Hall served as a member of the editorial board for poetry at
Wesleyan University Press. In 1968, he signed the "
Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against U.S. involvement in the
Vietnam War.
Marriage to Jane Kenyon In 1967, Hall and his wife, Kirby, separated; the couple divorced in 1969. Then, early in 1994, it was discovered that Kenyon had
leukemia. Her debilitating illness, her death fifteen months later, and Hall's struggle to come to terms with these tragedies, were the subject of his 1998 poetry collection,
Without, which contains poems written in an
epistolary format. A subsequent poetry collection dedicated to Kenyon,
The 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 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 keen lament: 'How many times will he die in his own lifetime?'"
Writing career awarding Hall with the National Medal of Arts Hall published fifteen books of poetry. Two of these—
The One Day (1988) and
Old and New Poems (1990)—were included by critic
Harold Bloom in his list of works constituting the
Western Canon. Hall's later collections, "generally regarded as the best of his career", In addition to his poetry collections, Hall wrote children's books (notably
Ox-Cart Man, which won the
Caldecott Medal), several memoirs (such as
String Too Short to be Saved,
Life Work, and
Unpacking the Boxes), and a number of plays. He also turned his hand to reviews, criticism, textbooks, sports journalism, and biographies. He devoted substantial time to editing, for example, between 1983 and 1996, he oversaw publication of more than sixty titles for the University of Michigan Press. Starting in 1994, he was closely affiliated with the
Bennington College's graduate writing program, giving lectures and readings annually. Among Hall's many honours and awards were: 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 was nominated for the
National Book Award on three occasions (1956, 1979 and 1993). In 1994, he received the
Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for his lifetime achievement. For five years (1984–89), Hall was
Poet Laureate of his home state,
New Hampshire. He was subsequently appointed the fourteenth
U.S. Poet Laureate, succeeding
Ted Kooser. He began serving on October 1, 2006, and was succeeded the following year by
Charles Simic. At the time of his appointment, Hall was profiled in an episode of
The News Hour with Jim Lehrer which aired on October 16, 2006. Hall was awarded the 2010
National Medal of Arts by President
Barack Obama. 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/songs are written and read by Hall; 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 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.
Music Hall was the subject of "Great Gig in the Sky," the 5th track of
Roger Waters' album
The Dark Side of the Moon Redux, released on October 6th, 2023. The song discusses Hall's death, in which his assistant, Kendel Currier, contacts Waters informing him that Hall is in the hospital with sinus cancer. The song continues, eventually revealing that an estate sale was organized for the Eagle Pond Farm, where Waters requested "a couple of bale hooks and some baling twine from the barn." The lyrics refer to Hall's "red chair" - although his chair, famously, was blue. Whether this is a mistake or artistic licence is unclear. The song ends with "Well, R.I.P., Donald Hall." ==Personal life==