Principal Products of PortugalBeacon Press, 20. juuli 1997 - 288 pages If we believe that the most engaging people have eclectic interests, then Donald Hall is incontrovertibly our most engaging man of letters. Prize-winning poet, teacher, essayist, children's book writer, Hall here reflects on some of the things he holds most dear: his family home at New Hampshire's Eagle Pond, baseball, poetry, artists and writers named Henry (Moore, Adams, and James), trees, politics, graveyards, basketball, and reading out loud. Collected here for the first time are Hall's reminiscences of time spent with the sculptor Henry Moore, appreciations of his sports heroes such as Bob Cousy, Red Auerbach, Carlton Fisk, and his insightful and inspiring readings of fellow poets, E. A. Robinson, Andrew Marvell, James Wright, and others. This undeniably eclectic mix is a celebration and catalog of a writer's subjects. In Hall's words, "The title should please not only for its prodigious procession of p's but for bringing back memories of rote recitation standing in the third grade doing the multiplication tables, 7's maybe, or maybe the principal products of Portugal." Hall's dedication to the written word will be familiar to readers of his poetry and his autobiographical essay Life Work, a "sustained meditation on work as the key to personal happiness," according to the Los Angeles Times. Principal Products of Portugal gives Hall's readers a fresh perspective on familiar subjects as well as a deeper appreciation for the making of a reader, writer, and poet. |
Contents
Trees | 16 |
On Moving Ones Lips While Reading | 50 |
Bluejeans and Robert Francis | 68 |
The Unsayable Said | 81 |
Long Robinson | 104 |
Lament for a Maker | 118 |
Long Live the Dead | 140 |
Cousys Fires | 173 |
Auerbach in Bronze | 179 |
Octobers Shortstop | 194 |
Generations of Carlton Fisk | 214 |
Grandfathering | 230 |
We Have Lived by Our Wits | 250 |
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Adams's American Annie asked athlete ball baseball basketball beauty became Bill Russell Bob Cousy Boston Boston Celtics bronze Carlton Fisk Casey Celtics century coach dead death died Donald Hall English essay father feel friends grandfather graveyard Hampshire Henry Adams Henry Moore iambic Irina Isaac Witkin James Wright Jim's John knew Last Train late later League learned letters literary living Locking Piece looked Magazine Marvell Marvell's Mickey Stanley Moore's morning never night parlor pitcher plaster played players poems poet poetry political prose readers recitation Red Auerbach remember reprinted by permission Robinson sculpture Shawn shortstop Sometimes speak story studios summer T. S. Eliot talked Ted Williams tell Thayer things Thornley's Tigers tion told took trees turned walked watched William Witkin words writing wrote Yankee Magazine Yorker young