Donald Hall turned 80 yesterday

To celebrate, here's Hall reading and expounding on his work.

Hear an NPR podcast where Hall describes his choices for the series of recordings from the Poetry Foundation, Essential American Poets.  He remarked being "shocked and educated" by hearing Ezra Pound read his poems.

See and hear more from Donald Hall from the Library of Congress:

2006 National Book Festival podcast and biography.

2005 National Book Festival biography of Hall.

Hall is featured in the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress.

Other links from Library of Congress.

Donald Hall on 20th Century US Poetry for the UK's Poetry Archive

Hear excerpts from some classic American poems, and Donald Hall's description of the new additions to the Poetry Archive  (BBC, September 2008).

See Andrew Motion's introduction to the Poetry Archive here.  

Read Lindesay Irvine, "Poetry Needs to be Read Aloud, says Motion," Guardian (September 16, 2008).

See Julie Bloom, "American Poets Added to British Archive," New York Times (September 16, 2008).

Hear Langston Hughes read "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" on the Poetry Archive.

Donald Hall's Paris Review interviews

Donald Hall edited The Paris Review from 1953-1962.  He started the series of interviews known as "The Art of Poetry," and interviewed, among others, T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.  The archives of the interviews are now available on-line.  

http://www.theparisreview.org/literature.php

The text of Hall's interview with T.S. Eliot, "The Art of Poetry, #1," The Paris Review 21 (Spring-Summer 1959):

http://www.theparisreview.org/media/4738_ELIOT4.pdf

The text of his interview with Ezra Pound, "The Art of Poetry, #5," The Paris Review 28 (Summer-Fall, 1962):

http://www.theparisreview.org/media/4598_POUND.pdf