Former poet laureate Donald Hall dies at 89

Donald Hall, the 2006-2007 poet laureate, has died at age 89, his daughter, Philippa Smith, confirmed on Sunday. His poetry won him a National Book Critics Circle prize, membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a National Medal of Arts. He published more than 50 books, including everything from poetry to drama to memoirs. An avid baseball fan, he wrote odes to the Boston Red Sox and a book on pitcher Dock Ellis. He also contributed to Sports Illustrated, and wrote a prize-winning children's book, Ox-Cart Man. "He's really quite amazingly versatile," said Hall's long-time friend Mike Pride, editor emeritus of the Concord Monitor newspaper and a retired administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.

Source: The Associated Press