A candid memoir of love, art, and grief from a celebrated man of letters, United States poet laureate Donald Hall

In an intimate record of his twenty-three-year marriage to poet Jane Kenyon, Donald Hall recounts the rich pleasures and the unforeseen trials of their shared life. The couple made a home at their New England farmhouse, where they rejoiced in rituals of writing, gardening, caring for pets, and connecting with their rural community through friends and church. The Best Day the Worst Day presents a portrait of the inner moods of "the best marriage I know about," as Hall has written, against the stark medical emergency of Jane's leukemia, which ended her life in fifteen months. Between recollections of better times, Hall shares with readers the daily ordeal of Jane's dying through heartbreaking but ultimately inspiring storytelling.

It is a clear-eyed look at the illness that ended a great love, and the bond that illness could not break.

A Poet’s Memoir: Written with the candid, lyrical precision that made Donald Hall a U.S. Poet Laureate, this is an unflinching look at life, death, and art.
Love and Loss: Hall chronicles the twenty-three-year marriage he called "the best I know about," a partnership of two celebrated poets facing a terminal diagnosis together.
Coping with Cancer: A deeply moving account of Jane Kenyon’s fifteen-month battle with leukemia, from the shock of diagnosis to the final, quiet moments at their beloved farm.
Grief and Bereavement: More than just a story of illness, this is an intimate, heartbreaking, and ultimately inspiring guide through the landscape of grief.

The Best Day The Worst Day

The Best Day The Worst Day