Browse Items (17 total)

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.

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,…

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 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."

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

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

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.