{"id":2400,"date":"2012-06-19T13:43:08","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T17:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=2400"},"modified":"2014-03-31T13:10:03","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T17:10:03","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-may-13-1983","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-may-13-1983\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: May 13, 1984 [misdated 1983]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Letter<\/a>\"Letter<\/a><\/p>\n

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

May 13, 1983 [misdated 1983]
\nDear Don,<\/p>\n

Thanks for your letter. I did write to Mike Pride, the day
\nafter his article came out. In fact, I will soon write to him
\nagain, since the article will be published in The Valley News<\/span>
\non Monday, the day before you receive this, probably. There
\nwill be even more photography, even. I\u2019m sure Mike had
\nsomething to do with this.<\/p>\n

I guess I did a lousy job describing the Dartmouth
\nposition. I will be there for the fall term (Sept. 23-Dec. 1),
\nfilling in for Cleopatra, who directs all activities connected
\nwith creative writing and teaches in that area. As \u201cVisiting
\nAssociate Professor,\u201d I will teach a class in introductory
\ncreative writing (12 students or fewer), a class in fiction
\n(4-5 students) and 3 poetry tutorials. It\u2019s a 9-hour
\nschedule. I will also be in charge of readings, though
\nmuch of the fall program has been established. The pay I\u2019m
\nto get for this will be high enough that I will not have
\nto do any extra teaching. If I am lucky with my NEA
\napplication, and with another, higher-paying job afterward<\/span>
\n(Keene?), I may never have to do extra teaching after
\nthis summer! (\u2026\u2026Expect nothing! \u201c–Donald Hall).<\/p>\n

I like very much what your poem, in its revision,
\nsays about 20th-century man, machine and state. And
\nI like how active the title has become. Also, I find<\/p>\n

2\/<\/p>\n

the switch to \u201cI\u201d in stanza 3 strange and arresting<\/span>.
\nThere are a couple of worries I have about the poem–
\nsmall<\/span> worries. In stanza 3 there is, I think, an
\nawkward distance between \u201ctrain\u201d and its verb \u201csit.\u201d
\nAlso, I wonder about that \u201cwebbing\u201d in the stanza–
\nDo commuter trains have seat-belts? (I haven\u2019t
\nbeen on<\/span> a train with a seat-belt.) If you aren\u2019t
\nspeaking about a seatbelt, I don\u2019t know what
\n\u201cwebbing\u201d refers to – literally, at least. I think the
\ncharged conclusion is quite<\/span> interesting, overall!<\/p>\n

Miscellaneous: Do I know Bill Doreski? I\u2019ve
\nheard of him–that he is there at Keene State,
\nthat is\u2026.I understand he teaches creative writing
\nand is a poet. I worry a little, to tell the truth,
\nthat my<\/span> being a poet might hurt my chances
\nof being hired at Keene, since he or others
\nmight feel another poet ought not<\/span> to be hired.
\nThe Keene position is<\/span> in American literature, and I
\nhave done lots of things in that area. I only hope
\nthe lit. background will carry me along. More<\/span>: Thanks
\nfor thinking of me as one of your \u201cbest examples\u201d
\nfor your presentation before the NEA people!<\/p>\n

Will contact you later about the instruction of
\nof [sic] creative writing! In the meantime, love to you both,<\/p>\n

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

\n

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

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

[Click image to view] May 13, 1983 [misdated 1983] Dear Don, Thanks for your letter. I did write to Mike Pride, the day after his article came out. In fact, I will soon write to him again, since the article will be published in The Valley News on Monday, the day before you receive this, […]<\/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":[60366,35504,77589,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400"}],"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=2400"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11825,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2400\/revisions\/11825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}