Browse Items (151 total)

Early notes on The (Diblos) Notebook--a novel-within-a-novel where life and art turn into each other--inspired by Kimon Friar's idea for "a poet's coming-of-age story and a prelude to a great work."

A poem draft with examples of wordplay, an important exercise for James Merrill throughout his writing life. This entry also contains notes on Ephraim and Cold War nuclear annihilation worries.

A Ouija séance transcript regarding Wallace Stevens in the afterlife. This serves as one example of Merrill and Jackson frequently communicating with recently-deceased writers and friends, and also of the topics of literary vocation and sexual…

Journal 59 includes numerous pages of early holograph notes and drafts toward "The Broken Home," one of which is included here. Merrill's most autobiographical poem to date, "The Broken Home" centered on his parents' troubled relationship. It was…

Journal entry in which Merrill recounts his mother's discovery of his love affair with Kimon Friar.

Merrill's first diary, including an entry in which he recounts how he cleverly got out of being de-pantsed by David Mixsell at Lawrenceville School. One of Merrill's drawings is laid in beside the entry.

"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.”

James Merrill letter to Peter Hooten written in Key West to be read when Hooten wakes up. Merrill is begging Hooten to "get a hold of [his] feelings" and states that "the only permitted feeling is loyal clear-eyed love." This is one of the first…

James Merrill letter to Tony Parigory discussing typing the Ouija transcripts to make a prose memoir. Merrill also mentions his problem of losing the novel manuscripts.

Hellen Plummer letter to James Merrill regarding "Lost in Translation" and how much his work keeps impressing her. She shows herself to be a "fair literary critic" in this letter.