Browse Items (15 total)

Journal entry by David Jackson about jealousy and promiscuity between James Merrill and Jackson.

Merrill's first diary, including an entry in which he recounts how he cleverly got out of being de-pantsed by David Mixsell at Lawrenceville School. One of Merrill's drawings is laid in beside the entry.

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

Journal 59 includes numerous pages of early holograph notes and drafts toward "The Broken Home," one of which is included here. Merrill's most autobiographical poem to date, "The Broken Home" centered on his parents' troubled relationship. It was…

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…

A poem draft with examples of wordplay, an important exercise for James Merrill throughout his writing life. This entry also contains notes on Ephraim and Cold War nuclear annihilation worries.

Early notes on The (Diblos) Notebook--a novel-within-a-novel where life and art turn into each other--inspired by Kimon Friar's idea for "a poet's coming-of-age story and a prelude to a great work."

Draft of a letter to Tony Harwood about Merrill's beliefs on soul and spirituality. These would feed into "The Broken Home," "From the Cupola," and "Days of 1964."

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.

Notes on David McIntosh visit to Stonington coming to an end. This entry includes the first version of first two lines of "The Kimono."