Browse Items (206 total)

James Merrill reads "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop and his own poem dedicated to Bishop, "Developers at Crystal River" on April 11, 1980 at the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives, San Francisco

James Merrill discusses the impetus to his relationship with Washington University's Modern Literature Collection, at the first James Merrill Symposium.

James Merrill letter to Daryl Hine describing his and David Jackson's latest sexual partner. Merrill mentions his new relationship with Strato Mouflouzelis and also complains of spiritual and historical debates with Tony Harwood.

See also Journal…

James Merrill letter to Daryl Hine including Merrill's realization that he's using psychoanalytic thinking as a tool for enchantment rather than demystification, making life and art even more intertwined (see also "Under Libra" draft).

James Merrill letter to David Jackson with a poem, drawings, and a photo Merrill made for Jackson's 40th birthday.

Typed letter from James Merrill to his mother Hellen Ingram Plummer, explaining the spirit Ephraim and what Merrill is learning about patrons, representatives, and other topics.

James Merrill letter to Hellen Ingram Merrill with a poem draft inspired by Hans Lodeizen, shortly after his death. This later turned into "The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace," a pastoral elegy that imagined a world "under the world."

James Merrill letter to Irma Brandeis explaining Psyche's realization in "From the Cupola," the drafts of which he had been sending to her (see also "From the Cupola" draft page).

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.