Browse Items (17 total)

A Lawrenceville School class photograph, with James Merrill in the second row on far right. Also pictured is Tony Harwood, in the top row, second from right.

James Merrill as a cadet. Merrill was designated for "limited service only" because of poor eyesight.

Leila "Zelly" Howard, James Merrill's beloved governess, with whom he remained close until her death in 1977.

James Merrill and Kimon Friar, Merrill's Amherst teacher and lover. "Short, wiry, and dark, he was a high-minded, charismatic man of letters and an unabashed self-promoter."

Frederick Buechner, James Merrill's good friend from Lawrenceville, hanging from tree. "Freddy was an enthusiastic reader and a talented writer, with a confident, energetic mind that reveled in words and stories."

James Merrill as a boy on a slide. "As a child, Jimmy was always attended by someone...So it's striking that, as an adult, he remembered his childhood as painfully lonely...the loneliness of a young mind engaged with private thoughts of mortality,…

James Merrill as a baby with his parents, Charles and Hellen. After three weeks in the hospital, Hellen recorded James's weight weekly, through December.

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

Photograph of James Merrill as an older man, sitting outside in a white shirt, smiling at the camera.

Photograph of James Merrill in a purple turtle neck standing amid the ginkgo trees at Washington University, November 18, 1994.