I subjected myself to Donald Hall's inaugural reading as PL and afterwards
felt no need to go to any of his published volumes of poetry with the
expectation of learning anything in particular. It was a very competent
historical survey, with commentary, of 60 years of writing, however. By
posing a question, I was able to clear up my confusion about his early
activity as a publisher, and his relationship with Yvor Winters and Donald
Davie. During his reign, I detected nothing comparable to his inclusion of
Jackson MacLow and Ron Silliman in anthologies, and his "sponsorship" of
Tom Clark. Wonder why? Barry
On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 11:28:30 -0400, TheOldMole <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>The Jane poems (Without) became something of a minor bestseller.
>
>Barry Alpert wrote:
>> Jack Prelutsky is also one of Laura Bush, Dana Gioia, and perhaps Donald
>> Hall's official choices to appear in the Poetry "tent" this fall at the
>> National Book Festival. It should be noted that Poets.org is an organ of
>> the Academy of American Poets, which I used to regard as an "old boys'
>> network" dominated by "Triple H" until its relatively recent penetration
by
>> a number of unexpected (by me) chancellors.
>>
>> More surprising to me is Donald Hall as the most popular living American
>> poet. I wonder where he ranked before his anointment as Poet Laureate
and
>> why a decision by James H. Billington matters, numerically.
>>
>> Barry Alpert
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