James Baker Hall
Encyclopedia
James Baker Hall was an American poet
, novelist, photographer and teacher
.
in 1935. He was raised in a southern family of means and social standing, only to have a family scandal turn tragic when he was eight years old. This trauma, and its enduring consequence, would shape Hall’s life work as an artist, which began when he took up photography at age eleven.
Hall graduated from the University of Kentucky
with a B.A.
in English, having studied writing under Robert Hazel among his life-long literary colleagues: Wendell Berry
, Ed McClanahan
, Gurney Norman
, and Bobbie Ann Mason
. In 1960, he received a Stegner Fellowship
at Stanford University
and shared the historic workshops in which Leaving Cheyenne (Larry McMurtry
) and One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey
) were being written. After his first novel, Yates Paul, His Grand Flights, His Tootings (also written in these same workshops) was published to critical acclaim, Hall returned to his roots in photography. During this time, he became the close colleague of such photographers as Minor White
, Richard Benson, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard
, was a contributing editor for Aperture, and lectured widely on photography in such places as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, Rhode Island School of Design
, the Visual Studies Workshop, and the Minneapolis Museum of Art.
In 1973, Hall came back to Lexington to teach at the University of Kentucky and, for the next thirty years, would act as director of the creative writing program. In 2003, he retired as professor emeritus, having vastly influenced the next generation of Kentucky writers. Notable students include: Maurice Manning
, T. Crunk, and Patrick O’Keeffe.
Hall was prolific as both a writer and a visual artist, publishing widely in both arenas. In 2001, Hall was named the Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He was married to novelist Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, author of Come and Go, Molly Snow and At the Breakers. He died on June 25, 2009 in his home outside Sadieville, Kentucky
.
Photography
Select Articles
Select Anthologies
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, novelist, photographer and teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
.
Biography
James Baker Hall was born in Lexington, KentuckyLexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
in 1935. He was raised in a southern family of means and social standing, only to have a family scandal turn tragic when he was eight years old. This trauma, and its enduring consequence, would shape Hall’s life work as an artist, which began when he took up photography at age eleven.
Hall graduated from the University of Kentucky
University of Kentucky
The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...
with a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in English, having studied writing under Robert Hazel among his life-long literary colleagues: Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry is an American man of letters, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. He is a prolific author of novels, short stories, poems, and essays...
, Ed McClanahan
Ed McClanahan
Ed McClanahan is an American novelist, essayist, and professor.-Biography:Edward Poage McClanahan was born in Brooksville, Kentucky in 1932 to Edward Leroy and Jesse McClanahan. He attended school there and later in nearby Maysville, Kentucky where the family relocated in 1948. McClanahan...
, Gurney Norman
Gurney Norman
Gurney Norman is an American novelist, documentarian, and professor.-Biography:Gurney Norman was born in Grundy, Virginia in 1937...
, and Bobbie Ann Mason
Bobbie Ann Mason
Bobbie Ann Mason is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and literary critic from Kentucky.With four siblings Mason grew up on her family's dairy farm outside of Mayfield, Kentucky. As a child she loved to read, so her parents, Wilburn and Christina Mason, always made sure she had...
. In 1960, he received a Stegner Fellowship
Stegner Fellowship
The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner , an historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty member who founded the university's creative writing program. Ten...
at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and shared the historic workshops in which Leaving Cheyenne (Larry McMurtry
Larry McMurtry
Larry Jeff McMurtry is an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the old West or in contemporary Texas...
) and One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
) were being written. After his first novel, Yates Paul, His Grand Flights, His Tootings (also written in these same workshops) was published to critical acclaim, Hall returned to his roots in photography. During this time, he became the close colleague of such photographers as Minor White
Minor White
Minor Martin White was an American photographer born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.White earned a degree in botany with a minor in English from the University of Minnesota in 1933. His first creative efforts were in poetry, as he took five years thereafter to complete a sequence of 100 sonnets while...
, Richard Benson, and Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Ralph Eugene Meatyard was an American photographer, from Normal, Illinois.-Life & Career:Married to Madelyn McKinney, he moved to Lexington, Kentucky, to continue his trade as an optician. The company he worked for, Tinder-Krausse-Tinder also sold photographic equipment...
, was a contributing editor for Aperture, and lectured widely on photography in such places as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design
Rhode Island School of Design is a fine arts and design college located in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1877. Located at the base of College Hill, the RISD campus is contiguous with the Brown University campus. The two institutions share social, academic, and community resources and...
, the Visual Studies Workshop, and the Minneapolis Museum of Art.
In 1973, Hall came back to Lexington to teach at the University of Kentucky and, for the next thirty years, would act as director of the creative writing program. In 2003, he retired as professor emeritus, having vastly influenced the next generation of Kentucky writers. Notable students include: Maurice Manning
Maurice Manning
Maurice Manning is a former Irish Fine Gael politician. Manning was a member of the Oireachtas for 21 years, serving in both the Dáil and the Seanad. Since August 2002 he has been President of the Irish Human Rights Commission...
, T. Crunk, and Patrick O’Keeffe.
Hall was prolific as both a writer and a visual artist, publishing widely in both arenas. In 2001, Hall was named the Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. He was married to novelist Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, author of Come and Go, Molly Snow and At the Breakers. He died on June 25, 2009 in his home outside Sadieville, Kentucky
Sadieville, Kentucky
Sadieville is a city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 263 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Lexington–Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Sadieville is located at ....
.
Publications
Writing- Pleasure, Scroll Press, 2007
- The Total Light Process: New and Selected Poems, University Press of KentuckyUniversity Press of KentuckyThe University Press of Kentucky is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 1949 the press was established as a separate academic agency...
, 2004 - Praeder’s Letters, Sarabande BooksSarabande BooksSarabande Books is an American not-for-profit literary press founded in 1994, and located in Louisville, Kentucky, publishing poetry, fiction and nonfiction.The press was co-founded by Sarah Gorham and Jeffrey Skinner...
, 2002 - The Mother on the Other Side of the World, Sarabande Books, 1999
- Fast Signing Mute, Larkspur Press, 1992
- Stopping on the Edge to Wave, Wesleyan University PressWesleyan University PressWesleyan University Press is a university press that is part of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. The Press is currently directed by Suzanna Tamminen, a published poet and essayist...
, 1988 - Her Name, Pentagram Press, 1982
- Music for a Broken Piano, Fiction Collective, 1982
- Getting it On Up to the Brag, Larkspur Press, 1975
- Yates Paul, His Grand Flights, His Tootings, World Publishing Co., 1963; Cassell & Co., 1964; University Press of Kentucky, 2002.
Photography
- Pleasure, Scroll Press, 2007
- Tobacco Harvest: An Elegy, University Press of Kentucky, 2004
- A Spring-Fed Pond, Crystal Publications, 2000
- Orphan in the Attic, University of Kentucky Art MuseumUniversity of Kentucky Art MuseumThe University of Kentucky Art Museum is an art museum in Lexington, Kentucky. The collection includes European and American artwork ranging from Old Masters to contemporary, as well as a selection of Non-Western objects...
, 1995 - Minor White: Rites and Passages, ApertureAperture (magazine)Aperture is a quarterly photography magazine and a book publisher based in New York, New York. The magazine is published by Aperture Foundation, a non-profit organization devoted to fine art photography.-Magazine:...
, 1978 - Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Aperture, 1974
Select Articles
- “Robert,” Southern Quarterly. Vol. 40, No. 3. Spring 2002
- “Merwin,” Field. No. 55. Fall 1996
- “Burk Uzzle: The Hustle Comes of Age,” Aperture. No. 77. 1976
- “The Strange New World of Ralph Eugene Meatyard”, Popular Photography, July 1975
- “The Last Happy Band of Brothers,” EsquireEsquire (magazine)Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
. April 1974 - “In My Shoes, Place. Vol. II, No. 2. December, 1972
Select Anthologies
- Home Ground: Southern Autobiography, edited by J. Bill Berry. University of Missouri PressUniversity of Missouri PressThe University of Missouri Press is a university press founded in 1958 at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri.-External links:*...
. 1991 - The Pushcart Prize, VIII: Best of the Small Presses, edited by Bill Henderson. The Pushcart PressPushcart PressPushcart Press is a publishing house established in 1972 by Bill Henderson and is perhaps most famous for its Pushcart Prize and for the anthology of prize winners it publishes annually. The press has been honored by Publishers Weekly as one of the USA's "most influential publishers" with the 1979...
. 1983-1984 - Traveling America with Today’s Poets, edited by David Kherdian. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc: New York. 1977
- 50 Contemporary Poets: The Creative Process, edited by Alberta T. Turner. David McKay Company, Inc. 1977
- Kentucky Renaissance: An Anthology of Contemporary Writing, edited by Jonathon Greene. Gnomon Press: Kentucky. 1976
- Prize Stories 1968 The O. Henry Awards, edited by William Abrahams. Doubleday & Co., Inc.: New York. 1968
- Stanford Short Stories. 1962, edited by Wallace StegnerWallace StegnerWallace Earle Stegner was an American historian, novelist, short story writer, and environmentalist, often called "The Dean of Western Writers"...
and Richard Scowcroft. Stanford University PressStanford University PressThe Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
: California. 1962
Selected Solo Exhibits
- Photographs of Wendell Berry by James Baker Hall, Actors Theatre Gallery, Louisville, KY. 2009.
- Photo/Synthesis, 21c Museum, Louisville, KY. 2008-2009.
- 4 Over 50, Gallerie Soleil, Lexington, KY. 2007.
- Appear to Disappear, City Gallery, Downtown Arts Center, Lexington, KY. 2006.
- Tobacco Harvest: An Elegy, Smith Berry Winery Art Gallery, New Castle, KY. 2004.
- Portraits of Kentucky Writers, Ann Tower Gallery, Lexington, KY. 2002.
About Hall's Work
- “He makes our terror come alive – and our knowledge and our joy – in his beautiful singing.” --Gerald SternGerald SternGerald Stern is an American poet. His work became widely recognized after the 1977 publication of Lucky Life, which was that year's Lamont Poetry Selection, and of a series of essays on writing poetry in American Poetry Review. He has subsequently been given many prestigious awards for his...
- “James Baker Hall has consistently pursued in his poetry a trajectory that is deeply authentic. It has produced writing of daring and delicacy, over a period long enough to make it plain that this is not a momentary brilliance but a sustained vision. He has been dedicated to making the language reflect the surprise, the turns and leaps of memory and recurrent apparition, in which pain and beauty are often indistinguishable. This new collection [The Mother on the Other Side of the World] displays an intimate authority and mystery of tone that are the fulfillment of a genuine gift and uncompromising devotion to it.” --W.S. Merwin
- “The poems are pure, untainted by irony, naked and delighted with being. If there is one unyielding source and destination in all these poems, it is love – people and things worth loving, and the quiet mantra that’s always making itself matter. Though you might find yourself laughing or wincing, you understand that above all, James Baker Hall is a serious poet. He means what he says…. Hall is the real deal, the real, beautiful deal.” -- Maurice ManningMaurice ManningMaurice Manning is a former Irish Fine Gael politician. Manning was a member of the Oireachtas for 21 years, serving in both the Dáil and the Seanad. Since August 2002 he has been President of the Irish Human Rights Commission...
Select Awards
- 2001 - Poet Laureate of Kentucky
- 1993 - Southern Arts Council Fellowship
- 1986 - Al Smith Fellowship
- 1986 - Honorable Mention, San Francisco Art Institute Film Festival
- 1983 - Pushcart Prize
- 1980 - National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship
- 1973 - Juror’s Prize: Photovision (Boston)
- 1967 - O. Henry Prize
- 1960 - Stegner Fellowship
External links
- James Baker Hall Official Website: Archive of photographs and films
- KET Living By Words: Documentary on James Baker Hall, Wendell Berry, Bobbie Ann Mason, Ed McClanahan, and Gurney Norman
- James Baker Hall at Larkspur Press