About the Author

DONALD HALL, who served as poet laureate of the United States from 2006 to 2007, is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a recipient of the National Medal of the Arts, awarded by the president.

Reviews

"As this book shows, Hall...has not lost his touch. Laconic, witty, and lyrical, Hall is a master stylist, yet he remains refreshingly humble and matter-of-fact ...By exploring the joys and vicissitudes of a long life, this work offers revealing insights into the human condition--and the grit and openness it requires." - Publishers Weekly, starred review
"The writing life at age 85...A sense of joy infuses these gentle essays. "Old age sits in a chair," writes Hall, "writing a little and diminishing." For the author, writing has been, and continues to be, his passionate revenge against diminishing." - Kirkus Reviews
"Wry, tangy prose...Many readers may find themselves hoping they'll be this cogent and canny when they're "after 80."" - Booklist
"Deliciously readable...Donald Hall, if abandoned by the muse of poetry, has wrought his prose to a keen autumnal edge." - Wall Street Journal
"Alternately lyrical and laugh-out-loud funny...seductive frankness and bracing precision." - New York Times
"Essays After Eighty is a treasure...balancing frankness about losses with humor and gratitude." - Washington Post
"In this collection of 14 essays, the literary lion chews over his life-in-letters with a deft wit...Hall is caustic, funny, wise without being didactic, and even sexy." - Chicago Tribune
"Instinct with humor and mischievousness...A fine book of remembering all sorts of things past, Essays After Eighty is to be treasured." - Boston Globe
"Refreshingly direct, efficient, down-to-earth (also earthy), and witty...These deeply human moments enlighten -- even comfort the reader -- when Donald Hall converts them into engaging and memorable language...Essays After Eighty is lively testimony to his having done the one thing he always wanted to do -- write it! -- and doing it better than most of us can even dream of doing." - Los Angeles Review of Books
"Donald Hall is a master of language, observation and surprise...poignant and blunt...Hall is reliably colorful and eloquent across the board." - Portland Press Herald
"The prose of Essays After Eighty is a poet's prose. Hall is working with sentence and paragraph, not line and stanza, but every word counts. Concrete images propel his sentences, and he is a master of momentum and suspense. The reader sees or tastes a moment and yearns to know what happens next." - Concord Monitor