{"id":2441,"date":"2012-05-10T14:46:40","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T18:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=2441"},"modified":"2013-12-18T21:57:35","modified_gmt":"2013-12-19T01:57:35","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-september-25-1983","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-september-25-1983\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: September 25, 1983"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Letter<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Sept 25, 1983<\/p>\n

Dear Don,<\/p>\n

When you can find a minute, will you please
\nlook these over?<\/p>\n

(Maybe) they will be part of the fall
\nsubmission. Will that submission include
\n\u201cThe Minister\u2019s Death\u201d, \u201cWhen Paul Flew Away\u201d,
\n\u201cMy Brother in the Revolving Doors\u201d, \u201cThe Before
\nPeople\u201d–too [+ Portuguese Dictionary]? And if so, do you need
\nnew copies of any or all?<\/p>\n

Have just sent proofed, pre-galleys
\nmanuscript to U\/MO–am told sketches for
\nthe book cover will arrive this week, and
\ngalleys in 3 weeks. They say they will set
\na record with this one for the fastest book
\nthey\u2019ve ever done!<\/p>\n

Best,<\/p>\n

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

\n

Editorial note about this letter:<\/em><\/span><\/strong> The poems McNair refers to in the first paragraph of this letter are “The Faith Healer,” “Remembering Aprons,” Ghosts,” and “The Last Time Shorty Towers Fetched the Cows.” Though the texts of the first two poems have appeared in earlier letters, this is the first mention of the latter two poems, each sent in a finished and publishable draft, except for an editor’s change in “The Last Time…” (see 2\/16\/1984<\/span><\/a><\/span>), replacing the numerical designation for the hour in “5:00,” with the words “five o’clock.” Here are the texts of each poem as McNair sent them:<\/p>\n

The Last Time Shorty Towers Fetched the Cows<\/p>\n

In the only story we have
\nof Shorty Towers, it is 5:00,
\nand he is dead drunk on his roof
\ndeciding to fetch the cows. How
\nhe got in this condition, shingling
\nall afternoon, is what the son-in-law,
\nthe one who made the back pasture
\ninto a golf course, can\u2019t figure out. So,
\nwith an expression somewhere between shock
\nand recognition, he just watches Shorty
\npull himself up to his not-so-
\nfull height, square his shoulders,
\nand sigh that small sigh as if caught
\nonce again in an invisible swarm
\nof bees. Let us imagine, in that moment
\njust before he turns to the roof\u2019s edge
\nand the abrupt end of the joke
\nwhich is all anyone thought to remember
\nof his life, Shorty is listening
\nto what seems to be the voice
\nof a lost heifer, just breaking
\nupward. And let us think that when he walks
\nwith such odd purpose down that hill
\njagged with shingles, he suddenly feels it
\nopen into the wide, incredibly green
\nmeadow where all the cows are.<\/p>\n

See also a selection of McNair’s manuscript notes and drafts<\/span><\/a><\/span> for “Shorty Towers.”<\/p>\n

Read Ghosts<\/span><\/a><\/strong> (published version)<\/span><\/p>\n

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

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

[Click image to view] Sept 25, 1983 Dear Don, When you can find a minute, will you please look these over? (Maybe) they will be part of the fall submission. Will that submission include \u201cThe Minister\u2019s Death\u201d, \u201cWhen Paul Flew Away\u201d, \u201cMy Brother in the Revolving Doors\u201d, \u201cThe Before People\u201d–too [+ Portuguese Dictionary]? And if […]<\/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":[35322,35504,42982,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441"}],"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=2441"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11397,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2441\/revisions\/11397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}