WINTER POEMS FROM EAGLE POND

From 1983 to 1998, poets Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon sent out a letterpress broadside poem each Christmas, printed by William Ewert of Concord New Hampshire. They were illustrated by Mary Azarian and Barry Moser, with calligraphy by R.P. Hale. In 1999, Wings Press collected these broadside poems and published them in a limited edition chapbook printed on linen paper. The cover stock—handmade by Austin, Texas, papermaker Kristin Kavanagh—incorporated red maple leaves from Eagle Pond, gathered by Donald Hall’s grandchildren on an autumn day in 1997. The cover was printed by Dr. Paul Christensen of College Station, Texas, using a 12x18 Chandler & Price sheet-fed letterpress; illustrations include wood cuts by Barry Moser and leaf prints made from leaves collected at Eagle Pond. Three hundred copies of Winter Poems from Eagle Pond were numbered, signed, and dated by the author. The book was designed and hand sewn by Wings Press publisher, Bryce Milligan, a long-time friend and correspondent of Hall's. This is truly the perfect Christmas gift for any serious lover of poetry.

Long considered the "Dean of American Poetry," Donald Hall (1929-2018) was Poet Laureate of the United States, 2006-2007. He was the prolific author of numerous books of poetry, criticism and literary biography, as well as books for children. Hall’s 1957 anthology, The New Poets of England and America established the canon of the best of the Academic Poets including Anthony Hecht, John Hollander, Donald Justice, May Swenson and Richard Wilbur, by maintaining allegiance to the traditional well-made poem as championed by T. S. Eliot and John Crowe Ransom. He was married to the American poet, Jane Kenyon, and they lived on the Hall family farm in rural New Hampshire in a farmhouse built in 1803, beside Eagle Pond. Hall and Kenyon were interviewed at the house by Bill Moyers in an Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary, “Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon: A Life Together,” broadcast in 1993. In his 1983 essay, “Poetry and Ambition,” Hall wrote, “I see no reason to spend your life writing poems unless your goal is to write great poems.” Barry Moser (1940-) is an artist—a printmaker and illustrator of many literary works of literature. He is also the owner of Pennyroyal Press. He provided illustrations for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, which received the 1982 American Book Award for design and illustration in 1982. He has illustrated nearly 200 other works as well, including The Bible, and Moby-Dick. His works have been displayed in such places as the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum, Harvard, and the Library of Congress.