{"id":2664,"date":"2012-06-19T13:29:44","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T17:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=2664"},"modified":"2013-11-07T21:45:56","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T01:45:56","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-may-6-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-may-6-1984\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: May 6, 1984"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Letter\"<\/a>\"Letter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

May 6, 1984<\/p>\n

Dear Don,<\/p>\n

Thanks again for your note on the Monitor article. I
\nlike Mike Pride a lot, and I was glad for two reasons,
\ntherefore, that we got together for the interview. And I
\nespecially liked how he dealt with Emerson, using E. to
\nresolve so much of what he had developed in the article. It
\nwas<\/span> an amazingly serious piece for a small-town newspaper.<\/p>\n

I still think about the confusion with pronouns in
\nThe Shooting (my poem)–the words in that last stanza,
\n\u201c\u2026called his name over\/and over\u201d, which might have
\nreferred, without your suggested comma, to the \u201cface\u201d which
\nthe quiet twin held. I have about decided that the current
\nversion, making they<\/span> the ones who called, is so right for
\nthe poem, I may even have intended to make them<\/span> call all
\nalong. Certainly the emphasis on \u201cthey\u201d is the only right thing
\nto end with, and I do like the strange use of \u201ccall\u201d–the
\nresonance<\/span> the word gets in the new context, too. Were you
\never protected from making a mistake in a poem by the patterns
\nof syntax you yourself created?<\/p>\n

On to the main reason for writing this letter: news
\nabout jobs. It appears I have gotten a position for the fall
\nterm at Dartmouth, as acting head of the writing program. I\u2019m
\nsure your reference in my dossier helped a great deal in
\nforming Cleopatra Mathis\u2019 decision to put my name forth. She
\nsays the reference that helped most in convincing others was
\nthe one by James Cox. If I had know [sic] Cox had such influence,
\nI would have asked him to recommend me three years ago, when
\nI sent my dossier to Dartmouth (this time, I didn\u2019t send it,
\nbut was recommended when Cleopatra called AWP). However the
\nidea to hire me was hatched (I will bet you had more to do
\nwith it than I now know), I\u2019m extremely glad it was<\/span>. I would
\nguess even a filling-in position at Dartmouth could be a
\nstepping-stone for something later.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned, I would like to see you sometime soon
\nabout approaches to creative writing. I never get tired of
\nasking for things, as you can see! I have taught creative
\nwriting before–fiction and poetry–but I want the teaching
\nfor the term to be something more than adequate.<\/p>\n

Oh, and there\u2019s another job that has become available,<\/p>\n

2\/<\/p>\n

through a sad event–the death of David Battenfeldt, who
\ntaught American literature for several years at my alma mater,
\nKeene State. Before the Dartmouth possibility came up, I
\nwas in contact with Richard Cunningham, the acting<\/span> dean of
\nhumanities there. I underscore \u201cacting\u201d because if he is
\nnot chosen to continue as dean, he, an Americanist, would
\ntake some of Battenfeldt\u2019s assignment, with the possible
\nresult that there would be no new position.<\/p>\n

What seems likely to happen, though, is that KSC will
\nadvertise for a professor of American lit. next fall,
\nreferring to an opening in the 1985-86 academic year. I have
\nalready had Middlebury send my dossier to Cunningham, and
\nhave asked AWP to send letters by you and Cox. Of course,
\neven if a job does become available at KSC, I may by then
\nget lucky with some other position, in some other state. Yet
\nI\u2019d still like to stay in this area. And I love that part of
\nNew Hampshire.<\/p>\n

I am so tired of not being able to write! Knowing that
\nmy two extra courses would be coming to a head in April, I
\ngave up all hope of writing in that month. I haven\u2019t had to
\ndo that sort of thing for a long time. And of course even my
\nperiods of writing this year, with all the extra<\/span> work, have
\nbeen full of distraction! I look to the next weeks (after the
\nfinals at Colby are finished, in mid-May) as a time of the
\ngreatest luxury. I will be offering no more than two courses
\nsimultaneously during the summer–and there will be no more
\nthan two class meetings per week. Heaven! I can become a poet
\nonce again!<\/p>\n

Please pass the news about jobs on to Jane. I promised
\nto get back to her about it, in a card I recently wrote to
\nher. I do hope your<\/span> recent period of mad activity is now
\nover, and that you can become a poet once again too!<\/p>\n

Love to both of you,<\/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 6, 1984 Dear Don, Thanks again for your note on the Monitor article. I like Mike Pride a lot, and I was glad for two reasons, therefore, that we got together for the interview. And I especially liked how he dealt with Emerson, using E. to resolve so much of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2341,"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\/2664"}],"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\/2341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2664"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10823,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2664\/revisions\/10823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}