{"id":2197,"date":"2012-04-30T11:56:31","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T15:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=2197"},"modified":"2013-11-03T11:07:26","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T15:07:26","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-october-31-1982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-october-31-1982\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: October 31, 1982"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; background: white; float: left;\"><a class=\"shutterset\" title=\"Letter from McNair to Hall, October 31, 1982, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire\" href=\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/files\/2012\/04\/McNair-Hall-19821031-001-unh.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2078 alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid gray; background: white;\" alt=\"Letter from McNair to Hall, October 31, 1982, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire\" src=\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/files\/2012\/04\/McNair-Hall-19821031-001-unh.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">[Click image to view]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td style=\"background: white; padding-left: 30px;\">October 31, 1982<\/p>\n<p>Dear Don,<\/p>\n<p>I hope you and Joey like the enclosed. If<br \/>\nyou both do, please let me know and keep it.<\/p>\n<p>If there are reservations, I will just wait<br \/>\nand return to it later.<\/p>\n<p>Writing is \u2018going fine\u2019 in spite of all<br \/>\nmy teaching and other duties! I remain on<br \/>\nmy daily schedule!<\/p>\n<p>Love,<\/p>\n<p>Wes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><em>Editorial note about this letter<\/em>:<\/span><\/strong> The unnamed poem referred to is \u201cThe Minister\u2019s Death.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Here is the text of &#8220;The Minister&#8217;s Death&#8221; as sent to Hall:<\/p>\n<p>That long fall,<br \/>\nwhen the voices stopped<br \/>\nin the tweed mouth<br \/>\nof his radio, and sermons<br \/>\nstood behind the door<br \/>\nof his study in files<br \/>\nno one would ever again inspect,<br \/>\nand even the black shoes<br \/>\nand vestments, emptied of him,<br \/>\nwere closed away,<br \/>\nthey sat together Sundays<br \/>\nin the house, now hers \u2014<br \/>\nthe son wearing his suit<br \/>\nand water-combed hair,<br \/>\nand mother in a house dress,<br \/>\ncradling the dead<br \/>\nman\u2019s cane. Somewhere<br \/>\nat the edge of the new<br \/>\nfeeling just beginning<br \/>\nbetween them, floorlamps<br \/>\nbloomed triple bulbs<br \/>\nand windowsills sagged<br \/>\nwith African violets,<br \/>\nand the old woman,<br \/>\nnot knowing exactly how<br \/>\nto say his face looked lovely<br \/>\nin the chair, framed<br \/>\nby a white aura<br \/>\nof doily, said nothing<br \/>\nat all. And the son,<br \/>\nnot used to feeling<br \/>\nsmall inside the great<br \/>\nshoulderpads of his suit,<br \/>\nlooked down at the rugs<br \/>\non rugs to where the trees kept<br \/>\nscattering the same, soft<br \/>\npuzzle of sunlight<br \/>\nuntil, from time to time,<br \/>\nshe found the words<br \/>\nof an old dialogue they both<br \/>\ncould speak:\u201dHow has the weather<br \/>\nbeen this week? What time<br \/>\ndid you start out from Keene?\u201d<\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-2197\" data-postid=\"2197\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-2197 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Click image to view] October 31, 1982 Dear Don, I hope you and Joey like the enclosed. If you both do, please let me know and keep it. If there are reservations, I will just wait and return to it later. Writing is \u2018going fine\u2019 in spite of all my teaching and other duties! I [&hellip;]<\/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":[35294,35504,42979,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197"}],"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=2197"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10157,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197\/revisions\/10157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}