Wesley McNair

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Dear Donald –

Your poem “Flies” is an absolute
triumph.

I like it better than anything you
have done recently. It ranks with
the very best you ever written.

Somewhere Kate is smiling.

Thanks for sending it.

Wes

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Donald —

Lord, that reading was wonderful! I woke up at
5:30 this morning (an unusual hour for me)
still high on it. I’d like to see that new long poem sometime.
Certain resonant images from it keep coming back
Into my mind — from part four (which I’ve already
mentioned), or from the section about the store
(with its Exxon sign and white clapboards- –
excellent, that tension!). As I told you, I often
have trouble hearing/seeing poems at readings,
and with that poem I need more time…

But thanks for coming to Colby to read your poems.
It was a special night — with the ultimate in
visual aids: Mt. Kearsage itself, just down the
road.

I’m awfully glad you are coming to Colby next year.
I hope you both feel as good to be in the
neighborhood as we all feel having you here.

Wes

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Don –

I called the printer immediately after you
called me and got the program revised.
The second-to-last sentence has been changed,
and one of the class visits has been
cancelled – ie, the visit to Creative Writing
on Tuesday. (Carl hoped you could share
some of your anecdotes of 19th century
American literary figures with the
Major American Writers class … but if
you have other plans, I’m sure he
wouldn’t mind.) After the reading,
you may be asked to the home of
someone in the English Dep’t for drinks
and conversation. I hope that’s OK.

2/

Many thanks for calling right back –
If there are still more questions, please
let me know. And if you have further
thoughts about program revisions,
you have until Wednesday to notify
me. Feel free.

Map for April 2 is enclosed.
Good luck! We are anxious to
see you both –

Wes

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Dear Don,

April 2 is now firm. Please
come –- you and Jane –- at 7:00.

I’m sending you — somewhat mangled —
copy for the brochure which our PI
office is having printed re: your visit at
CSC. Please note time of reading
and times of classroom appearances.
One of us in the English Dep’t will
no doubt be available to steer you
toward the right places.

Am looking forward to both
events. If you have questions –- well,
the 2nd comes before the 11th. Or
call me –-

Wes

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Many apologies for shifting
the date, but it turns out
that this weekend is
impossible for a dinner.

I am working hard for
April 2 at this point, so
if that’s out, please let me
know soon.

Thanks, Don, for the picture
& materials. Oh, Jane:
Guess what ? Tom Wayman’s
“Kitchen Poem” has turned up
in the Fall ’76 Paris Review –
Did you see it? I thought your
last issue of Green House was
strong. Thanks for sending it.

Wes

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Don –

Thanks for your letter.
Enclosed are two programs done for
Sladen Lectureships of the past. Can you
furnish us with a picture & bio information
suitable for this kind of format ?

April 11 seems right to all. The
reading will take place in the evening.
Further details later (re: classes, etc.).

Wes

P.S. News of dinner to follow!

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Don-

Am using this awful stationary
to tell you that (1) everything
at Marietta C. went extraordinarily
well (about which, more later) and that
(2) I have talked folks here into
a Donald Hall reading for either
April 5 or April 11 –
depending on your druthers.
Payment for the reading is
$800 – some class visitations –
two, perhaps- would be involved.
Can you let me know

if this last seems OK.

yrs,

Wes

P.S. – Our dinner for you &
Jane (& others) seems right
for two weeks from now. I’ll
give you a date soon – Hope
all is well with you both.

PPS – Just talked to Carl,
who says April 11 would be
the best date for the reading,
but suit yourself.

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Dear Don –

I’m so surprised and pleased at the same time,
I could spit! Right out of the blue, that call
from Stephen Bloom! I’m awfully grateful
you thought of me as a poet for Marietta
College. Can’t think how to tell you what that
means to me, except to say that I’m now
even higher than before ! Is there really a
world down there or did I only imagine it?

Thanks so very much.

Yrs,

Wes

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Dear Don and Jane,

I have read the poems which I took with me after my last visit,
and I like them very much. Their language and form are so natural–
accessible and profound all at once. “Names of Horses”: the title
is wonderful, as is the subject of the poem. Its long, hymn-like
lines are most appealing, also its sad music. I especially like
the last line–knockout, the way those “names”work [sic]. “Kicking the
Leaves”: again that conversational speaker who is all the time
forming a poem. The gesture at the center of the poem is (becomes)
beautifully complex. The very best poems in the group are,
to my mind, “The Black Faced Sheep” (beautiful in its composition
alone) and “Flies”. But then, it’s an awfully strong group. Honestly,
these are some of the best poems I’ve read in a long time.

Jane, you mentioned that I should send along poems for
Green House. I am sending two, neither of which should be used
until I receive word one way or the other from magazines to which
they’ve been sent. The “Rufus Porter” poem has been sent to San Hose
Studies, and the “Elinore Quelch” piece, which you may remember
from my book, has been sent to The American Poetry Review. I have
others, but they are either about to be published or unfinished.
No doubt at least one of the above mentioned will bounce. Please let
me know what you think of them (I enclose “E.Q.”, in the event you
need to review it); I’ll let you know as soon as I hear from
the mags above.

Don, you have me thinking about a “book-book”. Counting up
poems, I figure I have around 40 pages of text at this point,
and I feel that I might well have the thing written within the next
one or two years. It would be a book of reminiscences, like The Faces
of Americans, only more varied. My search through available stuff
has resulted in a find of four poems not included in The Faces.

You both may not realize that the confidence you expressed
in my poems last week saved my life. With scarcely anyone to talk to about
my writing, I had become consumed with self-doubt. Now, once again,
I believe….

Thanks so much for your kind words.

Yrs,

Wes

PS- My typist made a handful of typing errors
which changed certain poems in that book
for the worse– I will soon send you a revised copy
with the “Springfield Vt” poem currently in progress–

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Don-

Sorry to have fouled up the spelling
of the Peterborough publisher. The name,
legibly this time (I hope) is

WILLIAM L. BAUHAN

I have just received the illustrations
done for The Faces of Americans in 1853
& would like very much to discuss them
with you. I’m not at all sure they’re
right. Will you be around during the holidays?

Wes