Browse Items (15 total)

A Ouija séance transcript of the recently-deceased Tony Harwood describing the experience of his death.

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

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."

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…

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."

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 50 contains Merrill's last poem draft, called "The Next to Last Scene," scribbled down (without his glasses) the day before he died of a heart attack. It was unusual for Merrill to title the first draft of a poem in his notebook.

A draft of a letter to Merrill's mother, Hellen Ingram Plummer, to prepare her for the publication of his memoir,A Different Person, which contained elements of his life he knew would be unsettling to her.

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…