Essays After Eighty

By: Donald Hall

Narrated by: Tom Perkins

Donald Hall has lived a remarkable life of letters, a career capped by a National Medal of the Arts, awarded by the president. Now, in the "unknown, unanticipated galaxy" of very old age, he is writing searching essays that startle, move, and delight.

Hall paints his past: "Decades followed each other - 30 was terrifying, 40 I never noticed because I was drunk, 50 was best with a total change of life, 60 extended the bliss of 50...." And, poignantly, often joyfully, he limns his present: "When I turned 80 and rubbed testosterone on my chest, my beard roared like a lion and gained four inches." Most memorably, Hall writes about his enduring love affair with his ancestral Eagle Pond Farm, and with the writing life that sustains him every day.

©2014 Donald Hall (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"By exploring the joys and vicissitudes of a long life, this work offers revealing insights into the human condition." ( Publishers Weekly)

Witty autobiographical book of a wonderful poet

Such an interesting account of what it is like to be an older adult who has had great career as a poet but is now dealing with an aging body. Donald Hall is modest and honest.

Honestly and humor

It is good to hear from a fellow traveler on this adventure of old age who writes with wit and wisdom. Or is that redundant?

Should have been in the autobiography section

The author describes his earlier life in great boring detail. The reader was good but was limited by the insignificance of the text. I can’t imagine who would find this interesting

One or two essays deal with life after eighty. Kept waiting for an over arching theme to unfold only to hear more and endless minutiae on the author’s daily life. I hope his poetry is better but I won’t be reading it.