Haw Haw, Grandpaw (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781725552333)

Eliot Hallowell (1923-2018) was born in Minneapolis and educated at Middlesex School in MA. He was embarrassed (so he always said) to have attended Harvard University after 2 1/2 years as a Seabee in the Pacific Theatre during WWII. After a checkered past involving three marriages, job-hopping, alcoholism, debilitating OCD, and depression, in his 70s, he considered suicide. Thankfully, he committed himself into a locked psychiatric ward, got help, stopped drinking, and attempted to create a productive future. Eliot spent his retirement studying philosophy, literature, sabermetrics, the sciences, and religion. He wrote poetry to cope with the challenges he had experienced during his life. He dreamed that the subject matter he wrote about would be universal enough to be regarded as classic literature. Not from being egotistical but rather, from a desire to make a contribution. Eliot had always wanted to be either a trumpet player in a Dixieland band, a touring golf pro, or a stand-up comedian. None of these careers were in the cards for him, but he did figure out how to perform comedy, albeit sitting down, pen in hand. Although not all of his poems are funny, humor does pervade many of them. Now, all that's left is for all of us to read and share these easily accessible, straight-forward lines of verse. And maybe one day, his dream will come true that his poems will be enjoyed for generations.