Browse Items (21 total)

These are the only surviving remnants of James Merrill's attempted Ouija board novel, in a folder labeled "Lost 70's Novel," in Merrill's hand. After losing two different prose drafts of the novel, he decided to write a verse narrative instead, which…

"Mirror" was published in The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace. Included here is one typescript among 11 total pages with holograph notes and alternative titles. It was inspired by the Ephraim séances and is commonly held to be Merrill's…

"The Will," published in Divine Comedies, contains the first mention of Ephraim in a poem, as well as the first time he speaks. In it, Ephraim explains why the novel draft was lost twice--implying that he was involved.

"Voices from the Other World," published in The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace, was James Merrill's first--and for many years, only--treatment of the Ouija board séances in a poem. Merrill's supernatural and domestic life with Jackson…

Newspaper clipping of "When a Poet Raises Spirits at Ouija Board" by Paul Anastasi from the International Herald Tribune, March 8, 1978.

Fifteen pages (out of sixty total) ofa corrected typescript draft ofAn Evening at Sandover, Merrill's first stage adaptation of the Ouija board epic, performed as part of the revived Poets' Theatre at Hasty Pudding theater at Harvard. Peter Hooten…

Flyer for a dramatic reading of Voices from Sandover at UCLA. This was a stage adaptation of Merrill's Ouija board epic, which Hooten and Merrill toured for one-night performances in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Detroit.

Cover and first 25 pages of theVoices from Sandovervideo script, final draft, with corrections. This was an expanded version of the dramatic reading/stage version. With Hooten's connections in the film industry, it was possible for "highly talented…

Excerpt from Voices from Sandover, a play by James Merrill based on Merrill and David Jackson's Ouija board seances. The performance was staged at the Agassiz Theatre at Radcliffee College, produced by Peter Hooten, and directed by Joan Darling. The…

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…