McNair to Hall, May 28, 1984

Letter from McNair to Hall, May 28, 1984, Page 1, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire

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May 28, 1984

Dear Don,

What a pleasure to see you get that new square
for your honorary quilt!–even though I was sorry
you had to earn it by suffering through that Solemn
Tribute to your literary contribution.

And I wanted to say, too, how much I liked
the “Sister by the Pond” poem I finally got the chance
to pore over (in The Iowa Review). I love that part 6!

–Wes


A note from McNair about this letter: I refer in my first paragraph to Don’s receiving an honorary degree at the May Colby-Sawyer Commencement…. The definitive version of “Sister by the Pond” is somewhat different from the one I read in The Iowa Review. Don has already revised the poem when he receives this note. Nonetheless, the final published version, below, is close to the one I saw.

Read A Sister by the Pond (published version)