{"id":1708,"date":"2012-03-30T14:55:19","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T18:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=1708"},"modified":"2013-12-18T20:52:42","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T00:52:42","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-september-10-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-september-10-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: September 10, 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"McNair-to-Hall-09-10-1980\"<\/a>\"McNair-to-Hall-09-10-1980\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

September 10, 1980<\/p>\n

Dear Don,<\/p>\n

Thanks for your letter, with its variety of responses to my
\nquestions and comments.<\/p>\n

Thanks, too, for your advice about bio notes. Actually, I was
\nsurprised at what was written about me in Poetry<\/span>. The write-up
\nwas not derived from any statement I sent, but from a rather
\nextensive questionnaire which I filled out about jobs, publications,
\ngrants and even \u201cplans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact is, though, that I never even considered the dangers of
\nsounding \u201csuccessful\u201d when I filled out the form \u2013 nor did I
\nthink much about sounding \u201cacademic.\u201d You are right that I
\nshould think about these things. What matters, anyway, is not
\nthat stuff but the poems themselves; which is part of your
\npoint.<\/p>\n

Yes, \u201cobjectivity\u201d is clearly beside the point in \u201cThe
\nSlow Children,\u201d as your quotations make plain. You help
\nto clear my head for the later revision. No, I do not
\nhold onto poems when I first think they are finished,
\nwhich perhaps explains why I send you revisions after
\nI have sent you what seemed<\/span> to be the final version. It
\ntakes me so long to finish<\/span> a poem, I guess, I am
\noverly anxious to have someone else read it, like it
\nand confirm that I really can go on to other work.
\nI will have to work on this impulse\u2026.<\/p>\n

You have<\/span> my prayers as you start at Colby \u2013 and
\na question. Since (as I have been told) you are using
\nmy office at Colby, maybe you would like me to clean
\nout my desk and cabinets? I had no idea you would
\nbe there, though I probably could have figured it out.
\nLet me do this: I will clean out the desk and the
\nsmall cabinet to the right of the desk. Then you will
\nhave room for whatever you may need to store. Is
\nthat suitable? While you wait for whatever the prayers
\nmay bring, I can at least deliver you from storage problems!
\nI will try to take care of this by the end of the
\nweekend.<\/p>\n

Until then, may God be with you.<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

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

\n

A note from McNair about this letter:<\/strong><\/em> <\/span>The issue Don has raised about the need to hold onto poems before showing them begins to take effect here and returns in my correspondence later on (for instance, in the letter of Section IV dated October 22, 1980<\/span><\/a><\/span>), becoming one of Don’s most influential notions about revision, second only to his injunction about the possibility of publishing a book or getting a grant: \u201cExpect nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n

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

[Click image to view] September 10, 1980 Dear Don, Thanks for your letter, with its variety of responses to my questions and comments. Thanks, too, for your advice about bio notes. Actually, I was surprised at what was written about me in Poetry. The write-up was not derived from any statement I sent, but from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35324,35504,42973,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708"}],"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\/2206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1708"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11310,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708\/revisions\/11310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}