Browse Items (151 total)

James Merrill reads from his piece "The Changing Light at Sandover," a poem based on his and David Jackson's experiences with their Ouija board seances, at the first James Merrill Symposium. He is accompanied here by Peter Hooten voicing the…

James Merrill as a baby with his parents, Charles and Hellen. After three weeks in the hospital, Hellen recorded James's weight weekly, through December.

James Merrill as a boy on a slide. "As a child, Jimmy was always attended by someone...So it's striking that, as an adult, he remembered his childhood as painfully lonely...the loneliness of a young mind engaged with private thoughts of mortality,…

Maya Deren in a still from her film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943). A Ukrainian immigrant, scholar of French Symbolism, progressive activist, avant-garde filmmaker and dancer, "Deren introduced Merrill to spirit possession not as a metaphor, but as a…

Shirley Baker, Helen Vendler, and James Merrill at "James Merrill: A Life in Writing" symposium at Washington University, Nov. 18-19, 1994. Vendler is an esteemed professor and poetry critic who had been championing Merrill's work at least since…

"Among the Cottagers at Southampton," an article including a photo of and caption on "Master Jimmie Merrill." Merrill most often pictured Southampton and "the Orchard" when he thought of "home."

Newspaper clippings related to Charles Merrill's and Hellen Ingram Merrill's divorce. The "broken home" had a profound effect on James Merrill remembering his childhood as a lonely one.

Promotional poster for James Merrill's memoir A Different Person. Merrill continued revising the memoir into the galleys stage and sent to friends chapters that included them, making changes accordingly.

The bronzed death mask was Peter Hooten's idea, "but the juvenile author of "Death Masks"...would have appreciated it" (see Merrill's poem "Death Masks" in Love and Money, Publications).

"Honorary Degree Citations" in the Amherst Alumni News. James Merrill's honorary degree from Amherst was the third for the Merrill family (Charles had received two). Amherst asked James Merrill about collecting his literary papers, which were already…