To celebrate the upcoming Christmas holiday, and to honor the recently passed Donald Hall; beloved long-time NH resident and former United States poet laureate, I chose to feature "Christmas at Eagle Pond" this week. The book is a humorous work of historical fiction that follows the author at age 12 while he spends a Christmas holiday on his grandparent's farm.
"Donald Hall, drawing on his own childhood memories to create an instant-classic Christmas story, gives himself the thing he most wanted but didn't get as a boy: a Christmas at Eagle Pond. It's the Christmas season of 1940 and twelve-year-old Donnie takes the train to visit his grandparents. Once there, he quickly settles into the farm's routines. In the barn, Gramp milks the cows and entertains his grandson by speaking rhymed pieces, while his grandson's eyes are drawn to an empty stall that houses a graceful, cobwebby sleigh. Now, Model-A's speed over the wintry roads, which must be ploughed, and the beautiful sleigh has become obsolete. When the church pageant is over, the gifts are exchanged, and the remains of the Christmas feast put away, the air becomes heavy with fine snowflakes--the kind that fall at the start of a big storm--and everyone wonders, how will Donnie get back to his parents on time? "-- Publisher's blurb
Poet Donald Hall at his home at Eagle Pond Farm in Wilmot, NH (Photo by Aram Boghosian)
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