[1] During World War I, Hall had the distinction of serving in the militaries of three Western allies: Great Britain as an infantryman, and then France and the United States as an aviator.

After the war, Hall spent much of his life on the island of Tahiti, where he and Nordhoff wrote a number of successful adventure books, many adapted for film.

[3] After graduation, he became a social worker in Boston for the Society for Prevention to Cruelty to Children while trying to establish himself as a writer and studying for a master's degree from Harvard University.

Kitchener's Mob sold moderately well in America following its publication and after a speaking tour to promote the book, Hall returned to Europe in 1916 on assignment with Atlantic Monthly magazine.

After the war, Hall spent much of his life on the island of Tahiti, where he and Nordhoff, who had also moved there, wrote a number of successful adventure books (including the Bounty trilogy).

He wrote that he had been inspired by a dream in which he saw himself back in his Iowa childhood with a group of children, among whom was a girl named Fern who wanted her poems written down.

[6] His grave bears a line of verse he wrote in Iowa at the age of 11: "Look to the Northward stranger / Just over the hillside there / Have you ever in your travels seen / A land more passing fair?