Hazel Hall (1886-1924) was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, but moved with her family to Portland, Oregon, as a young girl. A bout with scarlet fever at the age of twelve left her confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. A skilled seamstress, Hazel did needlework for wealthy families to help earn income for her family, until her eyesight began to fail in her twenties. At that point, she turned to writing poetry as a source of both fulfillment and income. Hazel's first work was published when she was thirty. The public loved her poems, and critics compared her to Edna St. Vincent Millay and Robert Frost, dubbing her "the Emily Dickinson of Oregon." She published two books during her short lifetime, with another collection released after her death.