{"id":12894,"date":"2017-07-07T14:22:28","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T18:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?page_id=12894"},"modified":"2021-11-10T23:34:59","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T03:34:59","slug":"transition-of-book","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/transition-of-book\/","title":{"rendered":"FROM MANUSCRIPT TO BOOK:
A Map of Wesley McNair\u2019s Journey
in Revision"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

At the same time Wesley McNair was revising the individual poems he chose for his book (see revision links in the text of The Unfastening<\/em>), he was revising the book itself. <\/strong>This diagram, which includes three book manuscripts selected from a longer series, follows the process of that revision. The contents of each manuscript are in chronological order, and the entry at the far left shows how The Unfastening<\/em> began. Subsequent entries reveal how individual poems were deleted, repositioned and added (11 new poems and a new section) as McNair developed the themes of his book. <\/em>The fourth entry provides the definitive poem list as seen in the proofs for the book, sent to McNair by his publisher, David R. Godine. <\/strong>By drawing your cursor over poem titles, you can follow the changes that took place during an intense revision period that lasted just over a year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you have explored the poems of The Unfastening<\/em><\/span>, return to this page and take some time to answer the Guiding Questions<\/a>, which link the map to McNair\u2019s intentions as he developed the themes of his book.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n \n \n