{"id":2095,"date":"2012-04-27T13:16:44","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T17:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=2095"},"modified":"2013-10-28T13:30:33","modified_gmt":"2013-10-28T17:30:33","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-october-28-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-october-28-1981\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: October 28, 1981"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"McNair-to-Hall-10-28-1981\"<\/a>\"McNair-to-Hall-10-28-1981\"<\/a>\"McNair-to-Hall-10-28-1981\"<\/a>\"McNair-to-Hall-10-28-1981\"<\/a>\"McNair-to-Hall-10-28-1981\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

October 28, 1981<\/p>\n

Dear Don,<\/p>\n

Yes, I did just get word from you that Jane\u2019s
\nfather died. I suppose it is finally a relieving
\nthing for you both, since he had been hanging by
\na thread for so long. I hope Jane is holding
\ntogether, and that you are. Diane and I both
\nwish you<\/span> both well.<\/p>\n

You wrote about my book at the very time I
\nwas set to write you some good news about it.
\nGerald Costanzo, of Carnegie Mellon Press,
\nsent me a very full letter about it, said
\nhe found it \u201cexcellent\u201d and did want to
\npublish it, though it was too late for this
\nyear\u2019s publication list. (My best information
\nwas that manuscripts of poetry should be sent
\nto C.M. any time during the year. Apparently,
\nthis is no longer so.) He asked me to send
\nit to him again in 1982, between September<\/p>\n

2\/<\/p>\n

15 and October 15, and while he did not flat out
\nsay he would publish it, he left me with the
\nimpression that he would. The letter really did not
\nseem to be an elaborate \u201cno.\u201d Whatever<\/span> it
\nmay have been, it left me \u2018up\u2019 about the book\u2019s
\nchances in the current form.<\/p>\n

But I remain most concerned about your
\nfeeling that the book might benefit from the addition
\nof other poems. If you finally feel I should
\nrevise the thing, I will certainly consider doing
\nso. My main problem is that I went ahead
\nand ran copies of the present version (you\u2019ll
\nremember I told you I had to do so because
\ncontest time was coming up fast). But no
\nmatter. I still have a bit of time for a
\nrevision if I know of your ideas soon.<\/p>\n

You ask if there was any \u201cnear-misses\u201d
\nfor inclusion in the book. I have not really
\nconsidered any poems for the revision<\/p>\n

3\/<\/p>\n

other than the ones you found in it. Here are the
\ntitles of the poems which seem to me appropriate
\nfor some<\/span> book, and which I\u2019ve left out of this one:
\n(1) The Poetic License; (2) Beggars; (3) Trees That Pass Us
\n(4) A Dream of Herman; (5) The Fat People of the
\nOld Days; (6) Calling Harold; (7) The People Upstairs;
\n(8) The Fat Enter Heaven.<\/p>\n

I left \u201c(1)\u201d out of the new book because it
\nbroke the affirmative–unironically<\/span> affirmative–
\nmood which the Porter poems establish in part 5,
\nand which moves into part 6. (I should say
\nalso that the Porter poems establish a feeling about
\nregion that I don\u2019t want to intrude upon.)
\nI left \u201c(2)\u201d out because it has little to do with
\nthe book as a whole, and little connection with
\nthe poems of the last section in particular.
\nI suppose there might be some reason to include
\none or two of the other poems–though probably
\n(5) and (8) wouldn\u2019t fit. I can\u2019t see much<\/span>
\njustification for adding others, though. Maybe<\/p>\n

4\/<\/p>\n

(3) could work in the affirmative last section; problem is,
\nit\u2019s still another \u201cregion–viewed–from–car\u201d poem,
\nand I have too many poems of that kind in the last
\nsection already–three<\/span>, in fact. Poem (6) might
\nbe put into the last section, too; it is, after all,
\na positive sort of verse. But it has nothing to do
\nwith the new consideration of region (\u201cnew\u201d after
\nthe region of part 2)–and I do want this
\nbusiness to dominate in Part 5.<\/p>\n

For me, the book, whose epigraph promises
\na \u201cjourney\u201d that goes \u201cbackward in time\u201d
\n\u201cafter a few wavers\u201d begins<\/span> with wavers<\/span>,
\nor waverings, in the present, (sections 1 and 2),
\ngoes backward (sections 3, 4, 5–hints in 2)
\nand returns to the present (Section 6). The
\njourney works on personal, regional, and national
\nlevels. All of the poems must fit that movement,
\nand must relate to the more-or-less negative
\nbeginning and positive ending of the book.<\/p>\n

5\/<\/p>\n

That, in brief, is the way I see what I\u2019ve done
\nwith the poems of the book. Please let me know
\nwhere you may disagree! Also let me know
\nif you have any response to the revisions
\nI recently sent–particularly to \u201cA Dream
\nof Herman.\u201d Perhaps you didn\u2019t get the
\npoems I mailed. I worry about that. Then again,
\nmaybe I sent them more recently than I think.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I look forward to your comments
\nabout any<\/span> of the above (new pen). And please
\ngive our very best to Jane.<\/p>\n

More later about your visit here!<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

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

\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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

[Click image to view] October 28, 1981 Dear Don, Yes, I did just get word from you that Jane\u2019s father died. I suppose it is finally a relieving thing for you both, since he had been hanging by a thread for so long. I hope Jane is holding together, and that you are. Diane and […]<\/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":[35323,35504,42976,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095"}],"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=2095"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9791,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2095\/revisions\/9791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}