In "Essays After Eighty," Donald Hall, a distinguished voice in American letters and former Poet Laureate, offers a reflective and profoundly candid exploration of aging, memory, and the relentless passage of time. Through a series of essays, Hall navigates the terrain of very old age, a period of life he describes as an "unknown, unanticipated galaxy," with humor, grace, and an unflinching honesty that both startles and delights. From his irreverent recounting of a lifetime habit of smoking unfiltered cigarettes in "No Smoking" to the tender and poignant sketches of daily life on his ancestral Eagle Pond Farm, Hall invites readers into the intimate corners of his world, sharing the joys, the sorrows, and the unexpected beauty found in the twilight years of a life devoted to the craft of writing. With prose that is both elegant and accessible, Hall reflects on the milestones and the minutiae that have shaped him: the terror and invisibility of turning forty, the blissful shift at fifty, and the surprising, testosterone-fueled resurgence of his eighties. Beyond personal history, these essays are a testament to Hall's enduring love affair with the written word and the New Hampshire landscape that has fueled his creativity. "Essays After Eighty" is not just a book about aging; it is a luminous and moving celebration of the enduring power of art, the beauty of the natural world, and the resilience of the human spirit in the face of the inevitable.