Seasons At Eagle Pond.

HALL, Donald.

$125.00

Item Number: 587

New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1987.

First edition of Hall’s classic work. Octavo, original half cloth. Inscribed by the author on the title page in the year of publication, “For Betsy seasonally! with pleasure Donald Hall 18 September 1987.” Fine in a near fine slipcase. Illustrations by Thomas W. Nason.

Hall gives us an intimate sketch of his beloved New Hampshire, where he summered with his grandparents at their homestead on Eagle Pond in Danbury: "By the time I was sixteen I daydreamed of living here as a writer; in my twenties I learned that this was impractical; in my forties I did it." All four essays lucidly entwine Hall's past and present lives. Unfortunately, they are self-consciously nostalgic and therefore somewhat oppressive; perhaps because this was the season of Hall's childhood, "Summer" is the best realized. Still, this provides yet another backdrop against which we may examine Hall's poetry, his fiction, and his plays.