{"id":1918,"date":"2012-04-13T15:34:23","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T19:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=1918"},"modified":"2013-10-26T15:37:46","modified_gmt":"2013-10-26T19:37:46","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-december-5-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-december-5-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: December 5, 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"McNair-to-Hall-12-05-1980\"<\/a>\"McNair-to-Hall-12-05-1980\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"McNair-to-Hall-12-05-1980\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Postmarked Dec 5, 1980<\/p>\n

Dear Don,<\/p>\n

Thanks for your words of support about my sabbatical
\ndecision. I will remember that Hall principal and your
\nobsession about people wasting their lives doing sensible
\nthings.<\/p>\n

The news about the sabbatical is good. It was approved
\njust after I sent my last letter. That means 15
\nmonths of solid writing, a gift from heaven. I was
\na bit worried about being granted a full year, since I
\nhave had a lot of time away from the college recently
\n(was gone in 77-78, and am, of course, gone this term).
\nI believe the committee which approved my application
\nhad the prerogative or recommending the half-year
\nalternative if it seemed American Studies was suffering
\nas a result of my absence. But I have been grooming
\nPat Anderson for the past several months to replace me
\nas co-ordinator of American Studies (again, to
\ngive myself more time for writing), and I am sure
\nthe knowledge that Pat will be running things soon helped.
\nAlso, I convinced Wally before the committee made its
\ndecision \u2013 before I submitted my application, too \u2013 that
\nCarl should be replaced for the benefit of the A.S. program,<\/p>\n

2\/<\/p>\n

this in spite of the college\u2019s position that a \u201cnew Carl\u201d
\nwas not needed. As it turns out, the new person will be
\nable to take some of my courses, as will Pat.<\/p>\n

The pay for a full-year sabbatical at Colby
\nis \u00be – not \u00bd – of the professor\u2019s salary. The \u00be pay
\npolicy was instituted at the college by faculty vote a
\ncouple of years ago. Diane and I figure that my
\nsalary, plus hers, plus the money we get for
\nrenting part of the upstairs, will carry us through
\nso that Diane will be free during evenings for work
\non her ceramics, I will be a \u201chousehusband\u201d
\n(in the parlance of the talk shows), just as I am now.<\/p>\n

As you can imagine, I am just ecstatic to have
\nthis time. It will help me to capitalize on the
\nmomentum I have gained from the current time
\noff.<\/p>\n

And the momentum is significant. I have
\nseveral poems \u2013 many more than I have ever had
\nat any one time \u2013 finished and nearly finished in
\nmy notebooks. And I am speaking here not of<\/p>\n

3\/<\/p>\n

poems I have sent to you already, but of new work.
\nI am sure that with the addition time off, I will be
\nable to complete a large share of the second book I
\nam currently working on. For the first time in my life,
\nI can call myself a poet, without misgivings.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your comment about the work of this
\nterm, by the way. I can only say there is much
\nyou haven\u2019t yet seen. But there has been a lot
\nof work, and knowing how things might have gone,
\nI feel very fortunate in this. Naturally, I also
\nfeel lucky to have had the sympathetic attention
\nof Fran McCullough, one of those who read the
\npoems I submitted for my N.E.A. grant. And I
\nam mindful of who first brought these poems to
\nher attention.<\/p>\n

So in spite of my difficulty with that book
\nof mine, I feel blessed in my writing, and
\nin the continuous help and encouragement of
\nyourself and of Joey Amaryllis.<\/p>\n

More poems after a while. In the meantime,
\nall the best to you in your writing, too. And
\nto Jane in hers.<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

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

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

[Click image to view] Postmarked Dec 5, 1980 Dear Don, Thanks for your words of support about my sabbatical decision. I will remember that Hall principal and your obsession about people wasting their lives doing sensible things. The news about the sabbatical is good. It was approved just after I sent my last letter. That […]<\/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":[35324,35504,42976,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918"}],"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=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9645,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/9645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}