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Section II

Hall to McNair: June 21, 1979

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Hall-to-McNair-06-21-1979-Page 1

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 21 June 79

Dear Wes,

Well, it’s damned discouraging. You are good!
Eventually, more than 4 or 5 of us will get the
message. Many good people have been slow to
get published – Frost & Muir for two. Harper
& Row is unbearably slow. Of course the letter
from Ochester is hardly a bad sign – but one
needs more than good signs. I was quick off
the study block, an ambitious & precocious
child – but my first book was rejected 13
times before acceptance. Jane is going through a
patch of getting everything rejected from mags,
having been lucky earlier. She’s discouraged
too. I cannot remember if you have ever tried
Wesleyan. Are you at all interested in a small
press? I just had a pamphlet with BOA.

2/

You might try Galassi (Jonathan) at Houghton
Mifflin in the autumn, saying to J.G. that I
asked you to try him. Publishers don’t
generally accept anything – but some will &
do.

No reputable agent is
useful to a point. I can explain, if this is
obscure. I do use agents – but not for poems.

The writing – I don’t need to tell you – is
what matters. Keep getting better, & improve
the mss. every time it comes back, & you
will win through. As Jane & I always
quote to each other, from “Mary Hartman,”
: “Trust me! Trust me!”

Love to you both,

Don

McNair to Hall: June 15, 1979

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McNair-to-Hall-06-15-1979-Page-1

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 June 15, 1979
Dear Don –

Just got a rejection from U/Pittsburg Press.
My note (handwritten by Ed Ochester!) speaks
of “fine work here” and goes on to say that
“we have decided to go with other manuscripts,”
and that I should try the Press “again next
year if [my] book hasn’t been placed by then.”
The note brings back memories of another,
similar, rejection, sent me some months ago
by New Rivers Press, to whom I had mailed my
chapbook.

Since I figure I’m due soon for a
rejection from Yale, I’m writing to ask you
if you can think of any other publisher to whom
I might send the book. Do publishers generally
accept unsolicited manuscripts from poets?
I’m told there’s a NY agent named
Scott Meredith who is fairly reputable and
handles the work of many poets as well as
fiction writers. Do you know about this guy?

In my desperation, I’m up for any
suggestions – am beginning to fear that my

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“gratification” may be “delayed” forever.

Writing has been going well (up to today,
at least) and has been going steady and strong
for some time, thanks to your good influence.
I hope all is well with your writing – and with
Jane’s, in spite of her dismay on the night
we were at your house.

Down

Wes

A note from McNair about this letter: Jane’s “dismay” refers to the episode of depression that afflicted her during our visit.

McNair to Hall: January 23, 1979

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McNair-to-Hall-01-23-1979

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 23 January 1979

J.A. Amaryllis Incorporated
Box 71
Potter Place
New Hampshire 03265

Dear J.A.:

What an attractive letterhead you have chosen for your new
agency. And the color of the typeface, plant green, is just the right
thing.

I am of course flattered that Amaryllis Incorporated would
think of representing me as my literary agent. I hope that my poems
will contribute to the diversification which you say will increase
your credibility. Have you considered, by the way, the possibility
of a motto in those words? Credibility through diversification. I
see it as a logo, rising somewhat toward the viewer out of an
amaryllis bulb.

Anyway, about the poems. The ones that are as yet unpublished
are: The Bald Spot; Holding the Goat; When Superman Died in Springfield,
Vermont; Going Back to Elinore Quelch, A Ballad; The Poetic License;
Memory of North Suttob, rather, Sutton; and Country People. A
distinguished group, I’m sure you’ll agree. I think I sent TPL and
and MONS to the Iowa Review and the Ohio Review. These poems were also
sent to Poetry Northwest, along with TBS, CP, HTG and probably
WSDISV. Prairie Schooner saw some of the poems, but I’m not sure which.

Since it is difficult for me to send poems out after one or
two rejections, I am especially pleased to be your client. Needless to say,
I am also pleased that the day has finally come when a literary
agency has contacted me about my poems. After all these years of
obscurity, it is great to be famous.

Sincerely,

Wesley McNair

Read The Bald Spot(published version)

Read Holding the Goat (published version)

Read When Superman Died in Springfield, Vermont (published version)

Read The Poetic License (published version)

Read Memory of North Sutton (published version)

Read Country People (published version)

Hall to McNair: January 20, 1979

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Hall-to-McNair-1-20-1979

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 20 January 1979

Wes McNair
North Sutton
New Hampshire

Dear Mr. McNair,

We understand that you have available for publication
a manuscript of poems, of which some have not yet
appeared in periodicals. Would you be willing to allow
us to represent you, as your literary agents, in placing
your poems in periodicals? We have had some success
recently with Mr. Gregory Orr of Earlysville, Virginia,
placing seven of his poems on our first attempts to be
literary agents. We feel that diversification will
increase our credibility. We also like your poems. We
also like sending out mail. We also imagine that by
retaining ten per cent of your earnings, we will be able
to pay our postage, take trips to Miami, etc….

If you would like us to proceed, we believe that we
can secure a copy of your manuscript from Mr. Donald Hall,
pry the staples from it, and use it for distribution.
Would you please tell us not only which of the poems
have been printed*, but which of the other poems have been
seen by which magazines. Thorough, complete, and
accurate records are essential, as we all know, in this
difficult world…

Yours truly,

J.A.
For Amaryllis Incorporated

*& where

II. “Would you be willing to allow us to represent you…?” (1/20/1979 – 11/16/1979)

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Donald Hall
Donald Hall at his farmhouse in Wilmot, New Hampshire

ja-crop

The section begins with an invitation by letter from Joseph Amaryllis, of the Amaryllis agency, to join his stable of poets. Though I didn’t say so in my reply, it was clear that Joseph was Don’s dual identity: his agency was located in the next town over from Wilmot, and the agency’s address was in the same font Don used for his letters. As Joseph Amaryllis, Don represented several poets whose work he liked, and he sent my own poems out to magazines for many years after I signed on, relieving me of that tedious and often dispiriting process. (Note the gradual creation of Joey Amaryllis as a humorous character during the eight-year period of these letters.)

Argus Champion 1979
Argus Champion, November 1979

As Amaryllis succeeded with his submissions and my first collection grew, I submitted this volume, called The Faces of Americans in 1853 (its title derived from the chapbook that preceded it), to a variety of publishers, fretting over how to arrange the contents. Early in that process Don, who was a poetry consultant at Harper & Row, suggested the book to the editor Fran McCullough as a new title there. In the meantime, Don read my poems in progress one by one, combining praise with suggestions for revision I was not always willing to accept, used to going my own way.

But it was impossible not to learn from his letters, which contained advice about everything from writing poems, to the substance and submission of my book, to what should be paid to poets for readings, to encouragement, sometimes in the face of rejection.

title-collage

(My own “first book was rejected 13 times before acceptance.” he tells me, and later remarks, “I tend to love everything you do, occasionally with one or two words to disagree about.”) Section II includes the happy news that I have received an NEA fellowship for poetry and can look forward to a summer and fall of free time for my writing.

[This section has 24 letters]