{"id":2501,"date":"2012-05-10T15:35:20","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T19:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2013-12-18T15:18:59","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T19:18:59","slug":"hall-to-mcnair-january-18-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/hall-to-mcnair-january-18-1984\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall to McNair: January 18, 1984"},"content":{"rendered":"<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"vertical-align: top; background: white; float: left;\"><a class=\"shutterset\" title=\"Letter from Hall to McNair, January 18, 1984, Colby College Special Collections\" href=\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/files\/2012\/05\/Hall-McNair-19840118-001-colby.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-2078 alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid gray; background: white;\" alt=\"Letter from Hall to McNair, January 18, 1984, Colby College Special Collections\" src=\"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/files\/2012\/05\/Hall-McNair-19840118-001-colby.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;\">18 January 1984<\/p>\n<p>Wesley McNair<br \/>\nHominy Pot Rd.<br \/>\nNorth Sutton, NH 03260<\/p>\n<p>Dear Wes,<\/p>\n<p>I like the poem, though I don\u2019t think it is one of the best. It<br \/>\nis maybe a little obvious. I think that \u2018a sure sign\/ of winter\u201d is<br \/>\nsuper-obvious. Maybe people need it, who do not live around here\u2026 It<br \/>\nis \u201ca sure sign\u201d which is a little commonplace maybe. If it were just<br \/>\n\u201cfor\u201d winter\u2026but I wouldn\u2019t know how to space it quite. I love the great<br \/>\nloaf of bread. I don\u2019t really understand the \u201cmound of seatlessness,\u201d al-<br \/>\nthough the \u201cdrawlessness\u201d could be chests of drawers without the drawers<br \/>\nin them. What am I missing with seatlessness? Then \u201cother\/ kinds of<br \/>\nimperfection\u201d seems sort of obvious again \u2013 I mean, stating the obvious\u2026<br \/>\nWhen I see \u201csurmise\u201d in a poem I think of Keats, but it wouldn\u2019t seem to<br \/>\nfunction as an allusion here. Then it ends nicely\u2026 And I am not <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">against<\/span><br \/>\nit in general. Just not as enthusiastic as I often am.<\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t know that the Begiebing was happening already. I know what<br \/>\nyou mean about waiting and cringing. Ah, the bad portions of fame!<\/p>\n<p>I wonder if it might not be worth it to telephone him, about Jane,<br \/>\nto see if he could add a sentence at the beginning \u2013 and <del datetime=\"2012-05-10T19:34:07+00:00\">that <\/del>then he could<br \/>\nphone it in\u2026maybe about the first poem in Green House\u2026 I worry about<br \/>\nher feelings. I would not tell her that I am writing you this! This sort<br \/>\nof thing happens fairly often, and in accumulation I think she gets kind of<br \/>\nhurt feelings. I do not blame you. Being interviewed, you <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">always<\/span> \u2013 one<br \/>\nalways \u2013 forgets things. And cringes.<\/p>\n<p>If you should go away, you may write more things like Jack Cooch,<br \/>\nfrom a distance! I did not stop writing about New Hampshire, just because<br \/>\nI was in Michigan.<\/p>\n<p>Good for trying all those Poetry Society of America things\u2026and<br \/>\neverything else.<\/p>\n<p>If nothing can be done about the Jane-presence, do not worry about it.<br \/>\nBut it might be worth a try&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Best as ever,<\/p>\n<p>Don<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><em><strong>Editorial note about this<\/strong> <strong>letter:<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0<em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Green House<\/span><\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> is Jane Kenyon&#8217;s co-edited literary magazine.<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-2501\" data-postid=\"2501\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-2501 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Click image to view] 18 January 1984 Wesley McNair Hominy Pot Rd. North Sutton, NH 03260 Dear Wes, I like the poem, though I don\u2019t think it is one of the best. It is maybe a little obvious. I think that \u2018a sure sign\/ of winter\u201d is super-obvious. Maybe people need it, who do not [&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":[60366,596,42965,35504,77589],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501"}],"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=2501"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11176,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501\/revisions\/11176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}