"Voices from the Other World"

Item

Merrill, James, “"Voices from the Other World"”, Circa Fall 1955, James Merrill: Life and Archive, accessed February 11, 2026, https://digitalexhibits.library.wustl.edu/s/james-merrill-life-and-archive/item/38416

Title: "Voices from the Other World"
Description: "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 both enter his poetry here as subjects for the first time. Included here are two double-sided pages from a total of 27 draft pages, which show Merrill's fondness for doodling faces--especially female faces--as he composed poems.
Subject: Merrill, James, 1926-1995
Creator: Merrill, James
Source: James Merrill Papers (MSS083) - Box 140, Folder 3656
Date: Circa Fall 1955
Relation: Series_IV_Manuscripts; Exhibit Cases 3-4: Water Street; James Merrill: Life and Art, pp. 169, 213-15
Format: 2 leaves. Recto and verso.; 4 jpegs. 600 dpi.
Language: English
Type: Manuscript
Identifier: Voices_From_The_Other_World-001.jpg
Voices_From_The_Other_World-002.jpg
Voices_From_The_Other_World-003.jpg
Voices_From_The_Other_World-004.jpg
Rights Holder: Washington University in St. Louis
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Item sets: Merrill; Merrill Life Archive

Site pages: Water Street - Manuscripts

Media: Voices_From_The_Other_World-001.jpg; Voices_From_The_Other_World-002.jpg; Voices_From_The_Other_World-003.jpg; Voices_From_The_Other_World-004.jpg