Browse Items (206 total)

Photograph of James Merrill as an older man, leaning against a doorway and smiling at the camera.

Photograph of James Merrill in a purple turtle neck standing amid the ginkgo trees at Washington University, November 18, 1994.

Photograph of James Merrill as an older man, sitting outside in a white shirt, smiling at the camera.

James Merrill and David Jackson at Ouija board in Stonington. The photo was taken by Harry Pemberton, who took a roll of the mediums in action.

James Merrill and David Jackson's second séance (and the first that Merrill transcribed and preserved), in which they reached the spirit of "Kabel Barnes," a colonial farmer.

James Merrill and Kimon Friar, Merrill's Amherst teacher and lover. "Short, wiry, and dark, he was a high-minded, charismatic man of letters and an unabashed self-promoter."

Merrill discusses his relationship with the Modern Literature Collection and Mona Van Duyn at Washington University's Simon Hall in 1994.

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,…

James Merrill as a cadet. Merrill was designated for "limited service only" because of poor eyesight.