James Byron Hall

1918 - 2008

James Byron Hall, distinguished author and professor of literature, died on Thursday, February 28, 2008 with family at his side in Portland, Oregon. Born July 21, 1918 on his family's farm in Midland, Ohio, he attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and the University of Hawaii. He served in World War II from 1941 to 1946 in North Africa and Europe.

In 1946, Hall married Elizabeth Anne Cushman, his life-long partner and mother of their five children. Hall was a member of one of the very earliest classes of the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop where he earned both an MA and a PhD. He often recalled with gratitude his education at Iowa and the University's support both of scholarly and creative work as well as his friendship with Paul Engel, the Workshop director. Other early mentors included Robert Lowell, Richard Yates, and Austin Warren.

For over sixty years, Hal was an active author, writing more than 20 books of fiction, short stories and poetry, including Not by the Door (Random House); Racers to the Sun (Ivan Obolensky); Mayo Sergeant (New American Library); Fifteen by Three (New Directions); Us He Devours (New Directions); and The Extreme Stories + 3 (Castle Peak). His work was published widely in small journals, commercial magazines, and anthologies and was included in The O. Henry Prize Stories and The Best American Short Stories. As a critic wrote in a New York Times book review, "Like a row of crystal glasses, Hall's stories are blown to a separate perfection, each ringing with its own kind of clarity." He won many awards for his work, including a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Oregon Poetry Prize. The Encyclopedia of Short Fiction notes that he is "one of America's most anthologized short stories writers."

He began his career at Cornell University and then moved to the University of Oregon where he founded the creative writing program; he also taught at the University of California at Irvine where he helped launch the creative writing program; and at the University of California at Santa Cruz where he was the founding Provost of College V (now Porter College), the fine arts college. After his retirement, the University of California Regents named The James B. Hall Gallery at UC Santa Cruz in his honor.

He was known as an honest critic and loyal mentor, fostering the talent of his students and protégés who included such writers as Ken Kesey, Barry Lopez, and Bill Hotchkiss. Hall was a co-founder of the University of Oregon literary magazine the Northwest Review and was one of the founders of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, serving on its Board of Governors from 1973 to 1976 and as its president from 1975 to 1976. He was founding president of the Santa Cruz / Monterey chapter of the National Writers' Union, 1981, and was its West Coast grievance officer from 1986-87. In 1983 he retired as an emeritus professor from the University of California at Santa Cruz and moved to Oregon. Hall's papers are held by Miami University.

James B. Hall is survived by his five children, Elinor Hall-Venzke, her husband Buzz and their two children of Portland, Oregon; Prudence Hall-Liebowitz, her husband Howard and their three children of Santa Monica, California; Kathryn Hall and her two children of Iowa City, Iowa; Millicent Powers, her husband John and their two children of San Francisco, California; and James Hall and Anne Moses and their daughter of Napa Valley, California; as well as by his brother Harry O. Hall of Florida and sister Priscilla Hall Cole of Ohio and Florida. Hall's wife, Elizabeth, died earlier. A family celebration of the life of James B. Hall will be held this summer.

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