{"id":3909,"date":"2012-08-15T11:43:29","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T15:43:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=3909"},"modified":"2013-12-18T17:44:15","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T21:44:15","slug":"hall-to-mcnair-december-28-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/hall-to-mcnair-december-28-1984\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall to McNair, December 28, 1984"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Letter<\/a><\/p>\n

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

28 December 1984<\/p>\n

Wesley McNair
\nHominy Pot Rd.
\nNorth Sutton, NH 03260<\/p>\n

Dear Wes,<\/p>\n

I am wearing my Poultry shirt, as I sit in the privacy of my down-
\nstairs study dictating on a winter morning. I love it. So does Jane.
\nI knew what it came from, the Poultry\u2026<\/p>\n

What a year you have had. We have had more or less a lousy one \u2013
\nexcept for Philippa\u2019s happy marriage, and of course the wedding was some-
\nthing else. Christmas has been just too much. John Wain and Brenda have
\nbeen here for eight days from England. Andrew was here four days. Jane\u2019s
\nmother a week, and Philippa and Jerry a couple\u2026 Today the last Wain
\ngoes back to England, but Joyce and Jeff arrive to take the cottage over\u2026
\nWe will stay in bed for two days when they leave, then go down and see my
\nmother\u2026 Then I go to New York for a week\u2026 Then I go to Ann Arbor for
\none day for a reading\u2026 and then\u2026I think in February I may be able
\nto look at a piece of paper again.<\/p>\n

I like this new poem very much but something troubles me about the
\nending. I do know one thing. You give away the last line in the title
\nand that is something you should never do. When we come to the last line
\nit is no surprise. We were waiting for it all along. It is a wonderful
\ntitle \u2013 but it spoils the last line.<\/p>\n

Then I have trouble coming to the last line \u2013 I do believe \u2013 by itself\u2026
\nI wonder if it should be \u201cor the Town of No\u2026\u201d I wonder if \u201cor\u201d is right.
\nI wonder if there might be a line-break between \u201cdon\u2019t\/Blink\u2026\u201d? I know
\nthat something frays apart at the end.. It isn\u2019t quite solid I think.
\nAnd I think that my complaints will be solved by something as small as
\none syllable. And for that matter maybe I\u2019m nuts.<\/p>\n

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

\n

Editorial note about this letter: <\/strong><\/span><\/em>The new poem McNair sent to Hall was “A Traveler’s Advisory,” whose title he changed from “The Town of No” at Hall’s suggestion. Later he used the rejected title “The Town of No” for his second collection of poems.<\/p>\n

Read A Traveler’s Advisory<\/span><\/a><\/strong> (published version from The Town of No<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n

A second version of “A Traveler’s Advisory,” below, appeared in McNair’s dual volume The Town of No & My Brother Running<\/em>. He changed line 12 from “a closed garage” to “a closed gas station” for clarity.<\/p>\n

Read A Traveler’s Advisory<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(published version from The Town of No & My Brother Running<\/em>)<\/span><\/p>\n

See also a selection of McNair’s manuscript notes and drafts <\/span><\/a><\/span>of “A Traveler’s Advisory.”<\/p>\n\n

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

[Click image to view] 28 December 1984 Wesley McNair Hominy Pot Rd. North Sutton, NH 03260 Dear Wes, I am wearing my Poultry shirt, as I sit in the privacy of my down- stairs study dictating on a winter morning. I love it. So does Jane. I knew what it came from, the Poultry\u2026 What […]<\/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":[60366,596,42965,35504,77589],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909"}],"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=3909"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11234,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3909\/revisions\/11234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}