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Willow Temple: New and Selected Stories
Willow Temple, combining six of the most "notable and moving stories" (Robert Taylor, Boston Globe) from the 1987 collection The Ideal Bakery with six new stories written in the years since, is Donald Hall's most important short fiction collection to date. "From Willow Temple" is the indelible story of a child's witness of her mother's adultery and of the earlier shocking loss that underlies it. The other stories, too, are reminiscent of Alice Munro and William Maxwell in their mastery of form, their deeply observed portrayals of the interior worlds of only children, and their ability to trace the emotional fault lines connecting generations. In three stories we see David Bardo at crucial junctures of his life, beginning as a child drawn to his parents' "cozy adult coven of drunks" and growing into a young man whose intense first affair undergirds a lifelong taste for the heady mix of ardor and betrayal. Hall's short stories give a "breathtakingly successful" (Chicago Tribune) account of the passionate weight of lives.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
210 pages, Hardcover
First published May 7, 2003
4 people are currently reading
39 people want to read
About the author
Donald Hall
180 books201 followersDonald Hall was considered one of the major American poets of his generation.
His poetry explores the longing for a more bucolic past and reflects the poet’s abiding reverence for nature. Although Hall gained early success with his first collection, Exiles and Marriages (1955), his later poetry is generally regarded as the best of his career. Often compared favorably with such writers as James Dickey, Robert Bly, and James Wright, Hall used simple, direct language to evoke surrealistic imagery. In addition to his poetry, Hall built a respected body of prose that includes essays, short fiction, plays, and children’s books. Hall, who lived on the New Hampshire farm he visited in summers as a boy, was also noted for the anthologies he has edited and is a popular teacher, speaker, and reader of his own poems.
Born in 1928, Hall grew up in Hamden, Connecticut. The Hall household was marked by a volatile father and a mother who was “steadier, maybe with more access to depths because there was less continual surface,” as Hall explained in an essay for Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series (CAAS). “To her I owe my fires, to my father my tears. I owe them both for their reading.” By age twelve, Hall had discovered the poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe: “I read Poe and my life changed,” he remarked in CAAS. Another strong influence in Hall’s early years was his maternal great-grandfather’s farm in New Hampshire, where he spent many summers. Decades later, he bought the same farm and settled there as a full-time writer and poet.
Hall attended Philips Exeter Academy and had his first poem published at age 16. He was a participant at the prestigious Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, where he met Robert Frost, that same year. From Exeter, Hall went to Harvard University, attending class alongside Adrienne Rich, Robert Bly, Frank O’Hara, and John Ashbery; he also studied for a year with Archibald MacLeish. Hall earned a BLitt from Oxford University and won the Newdigate contest for his poem “Exile,” one of the few Americans ever to win the prize. Returning to the United States, Hall spent a year at Stanford, studying under the poet-critic Yvor Winters, before returning to Harvard to join the prestigious Society of Fellows. It was there that Hall assembled Exiles and Marriages, a tightly-structured collection crafted in rigid rhyme and meter. In 1953, Hall also became the poetry editor of the Paris Review, a position he held until 1961. In 1957 he took a position as assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan, where he remained until 1975. While at Michigan, Hall met the young Jane Kenyon. They later married and, when Hall’s grandmother, who owned Eagle Pond Farm, passed away, bought the farm, left teaching, and moved there together. The collections Kicking the Leaves (1978) and The Happy Man (1986) reflect Hall’s happiness at his return to the family farm, a place rich with memories and links to his past. Many of the poems explore and celebrate the continuity between generations. The Happy Man won the Lenore Marshall/Nation Prize. Hall’s next book, The One Day (1988), won the National Book Critics Circle Award. A long poem that meditates on the on-set of old age, The One Day, like much of Hall’s early work, takes shape under formal pressure: composed of 110 stanzas, split over three sections, its final sections are written in blank verse. The critic Frederick Pollack praised the book as possibly “the last masterpiece of American Modernism. Any poet who seeks to surpass this genre should study it; any reader who has lost interest in contemporary poetry should read it.” Old and New Poems (1990) contains several traditional poems from earlier collections, as well as more innovative verses not previously published. “Baseball,” included in The Museum of Clear Ideas (1993), is the poet’s ode to the great American pastime and is structured around t
His poetry explores the longing for a more bucolic past and reflects the poet’s abiding reverence for nature. Although Hall gained early success with his first collection, Exiles and Marriages (1955), his later poetry is generally regarded as the best of his career. Often compared favorably with such writers as James Dickey, Robert Bly, and James Wright, Hall used simple, direct language to evoke surrealistic imagery. In addition to his poetry, Hall built a respected body of prose that includes essays, short fiction, plays, and children’s books. Hall, who lived on the New Hampshire farm he visited in summers as a boy, was also noted for the anthologies he has edited and is a popular teacher, speaker, and reader of his own poems.
Born in 1928, Hall grew up in Hamden, Connecticut. The Hall household was marked by a volatile father and a mother who was “steadier, maybe with more access to depths because there was less continual surface,” as Hall explained in an essay for Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series (CAAS). “To her I owe my fires, to my father my tears. I owe them both for their reading.” By age twelve, Hall had discovered the poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe: “I read Poe and my life changed,” he remarked in CAAS. Another strong influence in Hall’s early years was his maternal great-grandfather’s farm in New Hampshire, where he spent many summers. Decades later, he bought the same farm and settled there as a full-time writer and poet.
Hall attended Philips Exeter Academy and had his first poem published at age 16. He was a participant at the prestigious Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, where he met Robert Frost, that same year. From Exeter, Hall went to Harvard University, attending class alongside Adrienne Rich, Robert Bly, Frank O’Hara, and John Ashbery; he also studied for a year with Archibald MacLeish. Hall earned a BLitt from Oxford University and won the Newdigate contest for his poem “Exile,” one of the few Americans ever to win the prize. Returning to the United States, Hall spent a year at Stanford, studying under the poet-critic Yvor Winters, before returning to Harvard to join the prestigious Society of Fellows. It was there that Hall assembled Exiles and Marriages, a tightly-structured collection crafted in rigid rhyme and meter. In 1953, Hall also became the poetry editor of the Paris Review, a position he held until 1961. In 1957 he took a position as assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan, where he remained until 1975. While at Michigan, Hall met the young Jane Kenyon. They later married and, when Hall’s grandmother, who owned Eagle Pond Farm, passed away, bought the farm, left teaching, and moved there together. The collections Kicking the Leaves (1978) and The Happy Man (1986) reflect Hall’s happiness at his return to the family farm, a place rich with memories and links to his past. Many of the poems explore and celebrate the continuity between generations. The Happy Man won the Lenore Marshall/Nation Prize. Hall’s next book, The One Day (1988), won the National Book Critics Circle Award. A long poem that meditates on the on-set of old age, The One Day, like much of Hall’s early work, takes shape under formal pressure: composed of 110 stanzas, split over three sections, its final sections are written in blank verse. The critic Frederick Pollack praised the book as possibly “the last masterpiece of American Modernism. Any poet who seeks to surpass this genre should study it; any reader who has lost interest in contemporary poetry should read it.” Old and New Poems (1990) contains several traditional poems from earlier collections, as well as more innovative verses not previously published. “Baseball,” included in The Museum of Clear Ideas (1993), is the poet’s ode to the great American pastime and is structured around t
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 18, 2009
read at the same time as two books by a much hipper/different/wilder writer, roberto bolano. but these much more traditional short stories, especially the title piece and some of the older ones that i had already read, touched me more deeply. hall writes beautifully, and has a slight off center streak.
May 25, 2025
A few of these stories I enjoyed a lot. I did not care for a recurring character, David Bardo, even though Hall thought enough of him to craft what might have been chapters in a novel.
January 28, 2013
Hall is 84 and this collection was published when he was 74 in 2003. The five selected stories were all taken from The Ideal Bakery (1987), the collection prior to Willow Temple. The remaining seven stories were written between 1987 and 2003. So in a long, much published and very distinguished career, short fiction was not Hall’s primary form—poetry first, non-fiction prose, children’s books and textbooks. So I was prepared to be underwhelmed, perhaps diverted. But I found myself quite taken with these tales, some set in New England and some in Michigan but most having a lifetime’s span to them. Three involve the same character at different points in his life. Donald Hall’s Nick Adams is David Bardo. In the first story he is a young teenager enjoying trips with his parent to a local tavern for dinner and conversation. In the next he is young man finding his way through his first serious relationship. In the third he is a diplomat enjoying a stint in D.C. after several tours overseas, his marriage on the rocks and engaged in a dangerous affair. Another story takes its protagonist from his “Summer of 42” affair as a teenager with a woman in her mid-twenties whose husband is an officer in the war to an encounter with her thirty-five years later. In the title story, a woman looks back on her parent’s marriage as she witnessed it as a young girl and she understands it now as an older woman whose own marriage failed. Hall explores themes of change, mortality, generational differences, sex, love, and family. It is an impressive, moving, and blunt collection. The stories are not grim but austere. They are unafraid of the consequences and perspective of long-life. They are provocative, artful and wise.
January 19, 2015
I was very happy to find that Hall is as great at writing prose as he is poetry. His stories remind me of Flannery O'Connor and Raymond Carver, but angled toward rural vs. urban life, morality and relationships, and often based in New Hampshire. (It makes it easy for me to relate to since I've lived for years in Conway and attend Colby-Sawyer in New London, right near where Hall lives on his farm.) He spoke at my college two years ago and everyone asked him about poetry. Now I have the urge to see him again to chat about the short story. A fabulous collection, and I enjoy reading his David Bardo stories, which are reminiscent of Hemingway's Nick Adams tales. It's good to find a collection where I enjoy every story!
Want to read
April 28, 2010I just received my copy of Willow Temple from Amazon today. Donald Hall is a wonderful writer. He was the Poet Laureate of the US in 2006 and is also the author of the Caldecott winner, Ox-Cart Man, but I love his short stories the best.
October 30, 2010
No writer I've read has mastered the craft of writing as well as Donald Hall. The stories are intriguing and wonderfully written, and on a sentence-by-sentence basis some of the best writing I've ever seen. Highly recommended. The First Woman was a particular favorite.
April 28, 2012
First short stories I've read by Hall. Admire his poetry.
May 22, 2015
I enjoyed the stories in this book. Lyrical prose,interesting characters.
July 17, 2016
I don't generally read short stories, but someone whose opinion I respect said I should read it anyway.
Wow, it's terrific...esp the title story.
Thoughtful, sad, wonderful.
Wow, it's terrific...esp the title story.
Thoughtful, sad, wonderful.
Read
April 28, 2015Beautifully written stories that are the poems of life.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews