About the Digital Archive

About the Digital Archive

Intended as a resource for scholars, students, writers, and teachers, the James Merrill Digital Archive currently provides digital access to a small cross-section from the James Merrill Papers housed in Special Collections at Washington University in St. Louis. The opening to The Book of Ephraim clamors for a medium “that would reach / The widest public in the shortest time” (ll.3-4), and we hope that digital archiving can provide such an entrance to Merrill’s work, and to the richness of the process behind his finished poem.  

The current Materials for The Book of Ephraim were selected with an eye toward the overlap between his Ouija transcripts, drafts, and poem, and especially in the interest of demonstrating Merrill’s extensive revision process, applied at every stage and to every material scattered in his papers. As the project moves forward, we hope to add to the Materials of the Digital Archive and extend convenient access to the James Merrill Papers, and thus to Merrill’s legacy of work.