Browse Items (151 total)

Water Street marks a turning point in James Merrill's writing; the book is "local and particular: it calls attention to where, and by implication how, the poet is living." Included here are the covers of two 1962 editions, with inscriptions and an…

The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace, first published in 1959, contains poems written over an eight-year period, which "are a collection of symbols and epiphanies drawn from experience but set off from it in an ideal, timeless space, a…

During the October 8 and 10, 1979 séances, Merrill finds out about and communicates with the recently deceased Elizabeth Bishop, an esteemed poet who influenced his own work and a close friend.

A homemade Ouija board, one of numerous boards James Merrill and David Jackson employed through the years for their séances. Merrill said they preferred these to the store-bought boards because they allowed for more room for clearer and faster…

This photo album, entitled "Happy Days at Stonington," includes snapshots taken around James Merrill and David Jackson's home at 107 Water Street, along with colorful commentary.

Early artwork done by James Merrill. These cutouts of dancing ladies show a lifelong affinity toward drawing the female face and form, especially sophisticated, beautiful women, often in costume.

Excerpt from Voices from Sandover, a play by James Merrill based on Merrill and David Jackson's Ouija board seances. The performance was staged at the Agassiz Theatre at Radcliffee College, produced by Peter Hooten, and directed by Joan Darling. The…

James Merrill reads his poem "An Upward Look" at the first James Merrill Symposium.

James Merrill reads "The Pruned Tree" by Howard Moss (poetry editor of the New Yorker and friend of Merrill's) and "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop at the first James Merrill Symposium.

James Merrill reads his poem "Alessio and the Zinnias" at the first James Merrill Symposium.