Browse Items (206 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…

Photograph of James Merrill receiving an honorary doctorate at Amherst College from Calvin H. Plimpton, June 7, 1968.

James Merrill's baby book with birth announcement. Discussed in Merrill's memoir, A Different Person, the baby book contains the list of gifts Merrill received at birth, including stock shares, silver spoons, gold diaper pins, etc.

James Merrill's silver baby cup and spoon from Tiffany & Co.

James Merrill's bronzed baby shoes.

Typescript drafts of the James Merrill's foreword to Recitative edited by J.D. McClatchy, July 1985.

Typescript draft of James Merrill's National Book Award for Mirabell: Books of Number acceptance speech, 1978.

Journal entry in which Merrill recounts his mother's discovery of his love affair with Kimon Friar.

Early holograph notes and drafts toward the poem that would become “18 W 11th St.” The poem regards his childhood NYC home, which was accidentally blown up by radicals living there and making homemade bombs in the basement.

James Merrill's notes on a possible title for the Ouija trilogy, eventually titled "The Changing Light at Sandover."