The Other World (1972-83)

Merrill’s critical success continued throughout the 1970s and early 80s as he directly incorporated his and Jacksons’ Ouija-board world into his work, first in the epic “The Book of Ephraim” (see also James Merrill Digital Archive) in the Pulitzer-winning volume, Divine Comedies, and then more fully in the two book-length sequels that followed and the compilation The Changing Light at Sandover, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Similar to Dante, Hugo, Yeats and many other renowned writers of the past, Merrill was delving into the realm of ethereal communications. He admitted to friends and critics he both doubted and believed what he was learning, transcribing and publishing. Nevertheless, Merrill dedicated his literary efforts almost exclusively to revealing “the other world” during these years. Highlights of this section include:

• Merrill’s letter to Tony Parigory explaining his attempts to turn the Ouija sessions into a prose memoir, and the only surviving manuscript of those attempts.
• Draft of “The Will,” which features the first appearance of "their familiar spirit," Ephraim.
• Ouija transcript of first conversation with spirits higher than Ephraim.
• Journal entry with various name possibilities for Merrill’s Ouija trilogy, published in one volume as The Changing Light at Sandover.
• Videos of Merrill reading an Elizabeth Bishop poem and a poem dedicated to Bishop.
• Merrill’s National Book Award for Mirabelle: Books of Number, the second part of the Ouija board trilogy.
• One of Merrill’s and Jackson’s homemade Ouija boards. 
• Pages from The Metamorphosis of 741, published by Claude Fredericks.