Colby College

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Wes McNair

Dear Wes,

I think that it would be a good idea to send
Costanzo some poems – because it is not a bad maga-
zine, because he has been your fan, because it might
be helpful to have him in your corner, for the next
book.

The older poems that you mentioned are still out
at various magazines. When they come back, why
don’t I send them to you, for you to send to Constanzo?
I think perhaps it
would be better if you sent poems to him, rather than
Joey. But be sure to keep everything straight with
[typed on other side of postcard] old Joey… Joey will be in
touch.

Best wishes,

Don

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Wesley McNair

Dear Wes,

I think the new batch is great and Joey is
ready to send them out if you are.

The others will continue to go out. No new
copies needed. I take it of course that none of
them are in the manuscript about coming out. I
also take it that you have handled the permissions
business, and that none of them were forthcoming
poems – I mean, in the new book. Amazing about the
speed of the book.

What about the Portuguese? Are there others?

Best as ever,

Don

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Wes McNair

Dear Wes,

I said I was going to write you a long letter
about your letter about the play… Now I don’t
think I will. Maybe we can talk about it. Jane
is better…but she will not be all better for some
time. It is still unpleasant to ride, but she can
do most other things. Maybe we can get together.
I am away all next week…then I’m home for a bit.

Love as ever,

Don

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Wes McNair

Dear Wes,

Thanks for the clip. I handle the public rela-
tions, Joey just does sales. Joey says get the lead
out.

Best as ever,

Don

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Wes McNair
Box 43
North Sutton, NH 03260

Dear Wes,

That is an extraordinarily helpful letter about the play…
Later this week, I am going to dictate a whole bunch of notes –
partly based on your letter, partly based on things I have
been thinking about for the last twelve months… I won’t
foreshadow what I say… I will be looking for more help on
the play! But really, this was very very useful.

It is totally unbelievable that the book will be ready
in December! I cannot believe that…

I have one thing to tell you that you will not [want to] hear:
try terribly hard not to rush the second book! Absolutely
everybody, and not only Wes McNair who has had to wait so damned
long, tends to rush the second book. I did. Name me one poet
who didn’t? Well, old Jane Kenyon is making it at least five
years, probably six.. I don’t mean that you have to wait five years
or possibly six… I do mean that you should not, please, shoot
for April!

I should say that I had the manuscript of a second book
at Viking within twelve months of the time they published Exiles
and Marriages… Then they persuaded me to wait – but I came
out with The Dark Houses three years after Exiles…and it was
too soon.

We must fear depression; we must fear elation… My play
was a tremendous high; my play was a tremendous low… There is
no avoiding this, unless we stop being poets and writers…

Thank you as ever for your good help.

Love to you all,

Don

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Wes McNair
North Sutton
NH

Dear Wes,

The poetry issue of the Argus Champion!
It is lovely to see you getting a bit of
attention…
Delighted with your dear mentions of me, in
this interview…

Here is a copy, in case you would like
it… If you do not need it, could you please
return it to me? I have in mind to send it to
a guy who writes articles for the New Hampshire
Times, with the suggestion that he do a piece
on you…but I send it to you first in case
you would like to keep it. The other thing
is pure speculation…

Best as ever,

Don

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Wes McNair

Dear Wes,

The contract is OK. The royalty stinks – but not to worry.
They’re just cutting their losses. I don’t think they should
exempt the first five hundred from royalties…and I think they
should pay ten per cent of retail…but giving you five hundred
dollars pretty much makes up the difference! You probably will
not see anything after that five hundred, but it does not matter –
the book’s the thing. And copyright reverts to you after it goes
out of print – the most important single item in the contract.
(There have been occasions on which a publisher has published a
book of poems, let it go out of print, and then retained ownership
in the poems – so that when the poor poet wants to reprint the
best of his poems for a Selected Poems, or for virtually ever in
anthologies, the original rotten publisher keeps getting money for
the poems! No problem here.)

Jane is perceptibly-better. She can read a tiny bit of print
now, for a short time. Very slow – but definitely in the right
direction!

OK, I will hold off on that poem until I get it from you again
with others.

Could you possibly drop me a note about the problems in the
last act, at some point? But we look forward to seeing you also.
But I don’t know when that will be!

Love to you both as ever,

Don

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Wes McNair
Box 43
North Sutton, NH 03260

Dear Wes,

As you suspected, I cannot read the poem
now.

Very nice letter from Costanzo. I come
to trust him more and more. I was a little
leery of him, when I first met him.

It is very good about the second book
business. I should say that David Godine has
expressed some guarded interest also.

I wired him not to come that weekend,
chiefly because we were semi-hysterical with
visitors and work and the play… Then in
fact Jane went into the hospital, by ambulance!
She will be all right. It looked as if it could
be something awful, but it isn’t. It is a severe
infection of the inner ear causing total
vertigo etc. She still cannot read – but she
is perceptively better.

He wrote me as he wrote you, and over the
telephone spoke of his hope he could do a book
by you in the future… Money in the bank!

Love as ever,

Don

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Dear Wes,

Good news about the
Devin’s Award. You must
realize that the “Final Round”
might be fifty or a hundred
books. Expect nothing! except
in general…

Love,

Don

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Wes McNair
Box 43
North Sutton, NH

Dear Wes,

Thanks for the poem. I don’t like this one so much, and
I cannot tell how much of it is the poem, and how much of it is
my incomprehension… I am not sure. I think that the faith
healer is speaking. But at the end, is it that he falls down
and holds onto the boy’s wheelchair, or do we learn that he is
in a wheelchair himself? I am troubled by the dialect, or what-
ever we call it when the writer does a spoken grammar. It
doesn’t sound real to me – but I don’t mean to say that it is
not real, not even like a transcription. I find it unconvincing.
Joey will be happy to send it out anyway. But it is not one
of my favorites, or not yet at any rate. I suppose I’m not
quite sure how the father did it, when the boy remains only
a chest, no limbs at all apparently. And I guess the whole
thing doesn’t especially add up to me. Sorry about that.

In general I save things until the New Yorker opens up,
as you know.

Love as ever,

Don