Clipping of "Literary Research Archives VI: The Modern Literary Manuscripts Collection in the Special Collections of the Washington University Libraries" by Anne Posega from DLB Yearbook, 1987.
"Looking at Mummy," Merrill's first poem at age 6, written in his mother's hand (so how much of it she may have written herself remains a question). This experience/poem later influenced “The Broken Home.”
These are the only surviving remnants of James Merrill's attempted Ouija board novel, in a folder labeled "Lost 70's Novel," in Merrill's hand. After losing two different prose drafts of the novel, he decided to write a verse narrative instead, which…
In this popular poem, Merrill reminisces about the summer of 1937, waiting for and then working on a jigsaw puzzle with his governess, Zelly, and her teaching him "her languages." "Lost in Translation" is often cited as Merrill's greatest short poem.…
Seven complete typescript drafts, all of them titled and with the Rilke epigraph and dedication to Richard Howard. These are in different stages of completion with respect to the final published version, but appear to be from a later date than any of…
Photocopy of a printout draft of "Lust," faxed to and corrected by the publisher. This essay was first published in Wicked Pleasures: Meditations on the Seven 'Deadly' Sins, edited by Robert Solomon. New York, Rowan and Littlefield, 1999,…