{"id":1634,"date":"2012-03-05T16:16:21","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T20:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=1634"},"modified":"2013-10-25T15:19:10","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T19:19:10","slug":"hall-to-mcnair-july-8-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/hall-to-mcnair-july-8-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall to McNair: July 8, 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Hall-to-McNair-07-08-1980\"<\/a>\"Hall-to-McNair-07-08-1980\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Click image to view]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

8 July 1980<\/p>\n

Wes McNair
\nBox 43
\nN. Sutton, NH 03260<\/p>\n

Dear Wes,<\/p>\n

These feeling [sic] simply do not end! Believe me I am
\nsympathetic with your<\/span> feelings, but let me tell you that
\nwhen you have published a book \u2013 which you will \u2013 nothing
\nwill happen<\/span>; or at least it will seem that nothing has
\nhappened. And this would be true whether it were published
\nby New Rivers or Atheneum. Even if something happens, then
\nyou realize that the \u201csomething\u201d is truly nothing. And
\nafter you have published eight books of poems, you are still
\nconvinced that no one has read you, and that probably you
\nare no good anyway. Or at least you are convinced of that
\nfrequently. I have been going through quite a bad patch,
\nin my feelings about my own ability, my past work, and cer-
\ntainly my present work.<\/p>\n

There is only one place, or one moment, in which one
\nfinds happiness, and it is always momentary \u2013 because that
\nis the moment of actual writing, and of course that is not
\nalways true.<\/p>\n

So I do two things: I assure you that you will publish;
\nand I tell you that it will not make any difference! But I
\ndo have a third thing to say: it makes a difference to me!<\/p>\n

In connection with your own book, I am pursing two
\ndistant notions, neither of which is worth talking about
\nat the moment.<\/p>\n

I wish I could tell you the names of people at Viking,
\nDoubleday, and Knopf to write to. I don\u2019t think it is
\nuseful to send them a manuscript. You might write a letter,
\ntell them where you have printed, about the NEA \u2013 and ask
\nthem if they would care to see a manuscript. Most publishers
\ndo not read manuscripts that come over the transom any more.
\nHarper & Row used to, when Fran was there \u2013 and now it has
\nstopped.<\/p>\n

I think that the University of Georgia with Zimmer is
\na good idea, and why not Illinois, Princeton, and Carnegie-
\nMellon?<\/p>\n

At the University of Illinois Press, please address
\nthe book to Lawrence Liebermann<\/del>, and tell him that I asked
\nyou to send it to him. [Written in margin<\/em>: check spelling!]<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be happy to talk with you about which poems to
\nsend Houghton Mifflin, when the time comes.<\/p>\n

2\/<\/p>\n

If you are happy with the writing that you are doing
\nnow \u2013 as you mentioned \u2013 you are as happy as a poet can
\nget!<\/p>\n

Fine to see small batches of poems. You won\u2019t hear
\nmuch from Joey for the nonce, because summer is a bad time
\nfor submitting things, and a slow time for hearing about
\nthings.<\/p>\n

Best as ever, and just keep to the bench, as the
\nscientists say,<\/p>\n

Don<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n\n
\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Click image to view] 8 July 1980 Wes McNair Box 43 N. Sutton, NH 03260 Dear Wes, These feeling [sic] simply do not end! Believe me I am sympathetic with your feelings, but let me tell you that when you have published a book \u2013 which you will \u2013 nothing will happen; or at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2341,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35324,596,42965,35504,42973],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1634"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9571,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions\/9571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}