Hall to McNair: October 31, 1980

Hall-to-McNair-19-31-1980

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October 31, 1980

Dear Mr. Amaryllis,

Thank you for letting us see Mr. McNair’s
poems.

I like, and would like to accept, two of
them (“Hair on Television,” “The Fat Enter Heaven”)
if Mr. McNair would change “tampons” to anything
else hawked on television.

My reason is that “tampons” right now has too
many painful associations with “toxic shock syndrome”
and suffering and death. It’s a gruesomely dissonant
not in this poem—though it might be fine elsewhere,
anywhere where gruesomeness was the intent.

I return the other poem just to save paperwork.
If Mr. McNair can rework his poem just a little, we
can accept both at once.

With all best wishes,

Sincerely,
John F. Nims


Read Hair on Television (published version)

Read The Fat Enter Heaven (published version)