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James Ingram Merrill

ジェイムズ・イングラム・メリル

Jeimuzu Ingramu Meriru

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1926-03-03 （New York City, US）
Died
1995-02-06 （Tucson, Arizona, US） age 68
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
New York City (birth, childhood) → Southampton (The Orchard, childhood estate) → Stonington, Connecticut (longtime residence) → Athens, Greece (seasonal residence) → Key West, Florida (later residence) → Tucson, Arizona (wintering, died)

Career

Occupations
Poet, Essayist, Playwright
Active Years
1946-1995
Affiliations
Academy of American Poets (Chancellor), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellow)
Memberships
Academy of American Poets, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Influenced By
Marcel Proust, W. H. Auden, W. B. Yeats
Influenced
Subsequent American poets (influence on formalism and long-poem practice)

Education

St. Bernard's School
Period: 1936–1938
Country: United States
Primary/early school attendance; childhood education.
Lawrenceville School
Period: 寄宿生期間（十代）
Country: United States
Boarding prep school; began writing poetry here.
Amherst College
English
Degree: BA
Period: 1945–1947
Year of Graduation: 1947
Country: United States
Graduated summa cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa.

Awards

Glascock Prize
1946
Work: The Black Swan (private edition)
Organization: Amherst/academic award
Result: winner
Bollingen Prize
1973
Organization: Bollingen Prize committee
Result: winner
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
1977
Work: Divine Comedies
Organization: Pulitzer Prize committee
Result: winner
National Book Award for Poetry
1967
Work: Nights and Days
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: winner
National Book Award for Poetry
1979
Work: Mirabell: Books of Number
Organization: National Book Foundation
Result: winner
National Book Critics Circle Award
1983
Work: The Changing Light at Sandover
Organization: National Book Critics Circle
Result: winner
Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry
1990
Work: The Inner Room
Organization: Library of Congress
Result: winner
Golden Plate Award
1991
Organization: American Academy of Achievement
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Divine Comedies

1976 Poetry (mixed-length poems) 88 pages

A 1976 collection of varied poems, including pieces such as "Lost in Translation" and parts of "The Book of Ephraim."

translation and culturememoryself and other

The Changing Light at Sandover

1982 Epic poem (long-form poetry) 560 pages

A vast epic poem based on purported spirit messages communicated during séances; published in multiple volumes and featuring angels and voices of the deceased.

occult and the spirit worldfriendship and lossreligion and metaphysics
Adaptations
  • [Stage / Film] Voices from Sandover (1990)

Nights and Days

1966 Poetry 80 pages

Published in 1966; a collection treating private relationships, loss, and everyday moments with refined technique.

love and lossdomestic disruptionpersonal memory

The Book of Ephraim

1976 Poetic book (part of the Sandover trilogy) 96 pages

A principal section of The Changing Light at Sandover, composed as dialogues with spirit voices.

spiritual dialoguememory and reinterpretationfamily history

Bibliography

  • The Black Swan (1946)
  • First Poems (1951)
  • Water Street (1962)
  • Nights and Days (1966)
  • Divine Comedies (1976)
  • Mirabell: Books of Number (1978)
  • The Changing Light at Sandover (1982)
  • The Inner Room (1988)
  • A Different Person (memoir, 1993)

Adaptations

  • Voices from Sandover (stage/filmed adaptation; commercially recorded 1990)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
polished formalist lyricismmastery of meter and formlater conversational and narrative long-poem style
Recurring Motifs
love and lossfamily and domestic rupturememory and translationoccult/spirit worldGreek and Mediterranean motifs

Health

  • Complications related to HIV/AIDS
    晩年（1990年代初頭〜1995年）
    Died in 1995 of a heart attack related to complications from HIV/AIDS.

Legacy

Merrill is regarded as one of the major American poets of the late 20th century, a Pulitzer Prize winner with both an early body of formally polished lyric poetry and a later, massive epic based on purported spirit communications. He founded the Ingram Merrill Foundation and is remembered both for his work and his patronage of younger artists.

Museums

  • James Merrill House Stonington, Connecticut (107 Water Street)

Academic Societies

  • Academy of American Poets
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellow)

Archives

  • Washington University in St. Louis (James Merrill Papers)
  • Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (Yale Collection of American Literature)
  • Emory University (Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library)

In Popular Culture

  • The New Yorker republished his poem "The Mad Scene" in 1995 as a tribute.
  • The James Merrill House is presented publicly as the writer's home and a writer-in-residence program.

Quotes

  • Black on flat water past the jonquil lawns / Riding, the black swan draws / A private chaos warbling in its wake...
    Source: Poem "The Black Swan" (1946)
  • If the _spirits_ aren't external, how astonishing the _mediums_ become!
    Source: Comment on The Changing Light at Sandover (interview/memoir) (1982)

Trivia

  • His father, Charles E. Merrill, was a founding partner of the investment firm Merrill Lynch; Merrill grew up wealthy.
  • He founded the Ingram Merrill Foundation, which funded many young writers and artists.
  • The Changing Light at Sandover draws on purported spirit messages received via a Ouija board.
  • He lived for decades with his partner David Jackson; their remains are buried side by side in Evergreen Cemetery, Stonington.