Donald Hall (September 20, 1928 – June 23, 2018), best known for his poetry, also published short stories, essays, a memoir, plays, and children's books. He also contributed to Sports Illustrated, wrote lovingly about the Boston Red Sox, and collaborated with "LSD No-No" Pitcher Doc Ellis on a book about baseball.
Here Hall reads a variety of poems about his late wife, poet and translator, Jane Kenyon (May 23, 1947 – April 22, 1995). Kenyon was New Hampshire's poet laureate when she died from leukemia.
This reading was recorded in 1999 in Albany, when his most recent work was Without: Poems (1998), Fathers Playing Catch with Sons: Essays on Sport (1998), Principal Products of Portugal: Prose Pieces (1995), the memoir Life Work (1993), and numerous children's books. His poetry volume The One Day (1988) received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.
Hall was once a poetry editor of the Paris Review, and was Poet Laureate of New Hampshire (1984-89) and was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2006-2007.
Hall collaborated with Dock Ellis in Country of Baseball (1976). The first edition said Ellis was drinking vodka on the day of the no-hitter. The 1989 edition was updated to include the LSD story, which had been revealed by Doc Ellis in 1984. In 2009, an animated short about the game, Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No was released, which has since reached cult status.
