Browse Items (41 total)

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.

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."

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.

Hooten, Merrill, Yenser in a photo capturing a happy moment between the three.

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.…

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…

Shirley Baker, Helen Vendler, and James Merrill at "James Merrill: A Life in Writing" symposium at Washington University, Nov. 18-19, 1994. Vendler is an esteemed professor and poetry critic who had been championing Merrill's work at least since…

Photo of Richard Howard, a fellow poet, "poetry reviewer and editor with an ornate prose style and caustic wit...Social and generous, with a healthy measure of amour propre." Howard was the dedicatee of "Lost in Translation."

A photo of Peter Hooten, James Merrill's last partner. Their relationship started in 1983, when Hooten declared his love for Merrill "on Valentine's Eve," in Key West, Florida.

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.