Browse Items (22 total)

A homemade Ouija board, one of numerous boards James Merrill and David Jackson employed through the years for their séances. Merrill said they preferred these to the store-bought boards because they allowed for more room for clearer and faster…

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

This James Merrill postcard to David Jackson is one of the first mentions of Jackson in Merrill's Papers. The postcard was written shortly after they first met, and Merrill is wondering when he will see Jackson again.

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…

A Ouija séance transcript regarding Wallace Stevens in the afterlife. This serves as one example of Merrill and Jackson frequently communicating with recently-deceased writers and friends, and also of the topics of literary vocation and sexual…

During the March 29 and April 26, 1976 séances, higher powers (over Ephraim) began revealing the cosmology that Merrill would document in Mirabell: Books of Number and Scripts for the Pageant. It was during this time period, after finishing…

Painting of a bust of James Merrill as a child on the rooftop terrace of Athinaion Efivon 44 house in Athens, Greece, by David Jackson.