Browse Items (151 total)

Flyer advertisingThe Image Maker, a one-act verse play for two actors about Santeria, the syncretic art and religion of the Caribbean. The play featured Hooten, puppets, and a subtext about James Merrill's mother.

A mimeographed literary magazine published by John Bernard Myers, who printed the first books of John O'Hara, John Ashbery and others. It includes "Three Sketches for Europa" by James Merrill and the short story "Kritik K. and the Chateau" by David…

A mailer advertising the opening of The Immortal Husband, including an order form and a laudatory statement by Tennessee Williams.

Program for "The Artists Theater," including "The Bait," a one-act play in which James Merrill incorporates psychoanalysis. Merrill first met David Jackson after a performance.

"Amherst Bard wins Holyoke Poet Award" from THE JEFF. Merrill won the prestigious Glascock Poetry Prize for "The Broken Bowl," "The Formal Lovers" and "The Black Swan," all written in Kimon Friar's class. This win was a harbinger of many awards to…

Jim Boatwright, a.k.a. "the Colonel," was a professor at Washington and Lee University and editor of the literary magazine Shenandoah. Merrill had gotten to know Boatwright in Athens, although he also lived in Key West. Like Merrill, Boatwright died…

Richard & Charlee Wilbur, Merrill's Key West neighbors. Richard Wilbur was a fellow Amherst grad and accomplished poet, as well as a longtime friend and supporter of Merrill's work. Charlee Wilbur played matchmaker with Merrill and Peter Hooten.…

J. D. McClatchy, an admirer and then good friend of James Merrill's, is an accomplished poet and librettist, professor and critic. He went on to become Merrill's co-literary executor, along with Stephen Yenser.

James Merrill with Tony Harwood, one of Merrill's first friends at Lawrenceville. The two remained friends, although their friendship became strained as Tony "grew progressively more detached and paranoid."

Mona Van Duyn: fellow prize-winning poet, early champion and good friend of James Merrill, she successfully solicited Merrill's literary papers for Washington University. In this photo she is standing in front of a painting of herself.