Water Street - Manuscripts · James Merrill: Life and Archive · Digital Exhibits

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Water Street - Manuscripts

Title: The Immortal Husband
Description: A script for James Merrill's play, "The Immortal Husband," an update of the classical myth of Aurora and Tithonus. Included here are twenty of a total sixty-five manuscript pages.
Subject: Merrill, James, 1926-1995
Creator: Merrill, James
Source: James Merrill Papers (MSS083) - Box 146, Folder 3845
Date: Circa 1954
Relation: Series_IV_Manuscripts; Exhibit Cases 3-4: Water Street; James Merrill: Life and Art, pp. 176-90; See also The Immortal Husband mailer and telegram from Charles Merrill to his son on opening night
Format: 20 leaves. Recto.; 21 jpegs. 600 ppi.
Language: English
Type: Manuscript
Identifier: The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-000.jpg
The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-001.jpg
The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-002.jpg
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The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-018.jpg
The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-019.jpg
Rights Holder: Washington University in St. Louis
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Item sets: Merrill; Merrill Life Archive

Media: The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-000.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-001.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-002.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-003.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-004.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-005.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-006.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-007.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-008.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-009.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-010.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-011.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-012.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-013.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-014.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-015.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-016.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-017.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-018.jpg; The_Immortal_Husband_script_1954-019.jpg

Title: "Mirror"
Description: "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 "strongest, most original poem in the 1950s."
Subject: Merrill, James, 1926-1995
Creator: Merrill, James
Source: James Merrill Papers (MSS083) - Box 134, Folder 3368
Date: Circa summer 1956
Relation: Series_IV_Manuscripts; Exhibit Cases 3-4: Water Street; James Merrill: Life and Art, pp. 231-4
Format: 1 leaf. Recto.; 1 jpeg. 600 dpi.
Language: English
Type: Manuscript
Identifier: Merrill_Mirror_001.jpg
Rights Holder: Washington University in St. Louis
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Item sets: Merrill; Merrill Life Archive

Media: Merrill_Mirror_001.jpg

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

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

Title: "An Urban Convalescence"
Description: This entry includes two typescript draft pages (among the 40 worksheets Merrill saved) with holograph corrections and drawings showing his "engagement in verbal self-analysis" and reflecting "the intimate, brooding voice in Merrill's notebooks." The finished poem shows the early influence of Elizabeth Bishop and a reaction to Robert Lowell and Confessional poetry. "An Urban Convalescence" was published in Water Street.
Subject: Merrill, James, 1926-1995
Creator: Merrill, James
Source: James Merrill Papers (MSS083) - Box 140, Folder 3643
Date: Circa fall 1959-spring 1960
Relation: Series_IV_Manuscripts; Exhibit Cases 3-4: Water Street; James Merrill: Life and Art, pp. 274-9
Format: 2 leaves. Recto and verso.; 4 jpegs. 600 ppi.
Language: English
Type: Manuscript
Identifier: An_Urban_Convalescence-001.jpg
An_Urban_Convalescence-002.jpg
an_urban_convalescence_pg5_s1.jpg
an_urban_convalescence_pg5_s2.jpg
Rights Holder: Washington University in St. Louis
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Item sets: Merrill; Merrill Life Archive

Media: An_Urban_Convalescence-001.jpg; An_Urban_Convalescence-002.jpg; an_urban_convalescence_pg5_s1.jpg; an_urban_convalescence_pg5_s2.jpg

Title: "Stonington Novel" fragment
Description: This fragment is the start of a never-completed novel about James Merrill's and David Jackson's evolving relationship with Stonington and each other.
Subject: Merrill, James, 1926-1995
Creator: Merrill, James
Source: James Merrill Papers (MSS083) - Box 145, Folder 3832
Date: 1962: September 24
Relation: Series_IV_Manuscripts; Exhibit Cases 3-4: Water Street; James Merrill: Life and Art, p. 298
Format: 4 leaves. Recto.; 4 jpegs. 600 ppi.
Language: English
Type: Manuscript
Identifier: Stonington_Novel_Fragment_Sep_24_1962-001.jpg
Stonington_Novel_Fragment_Sep_24_1962-002.jpg
Stonington_Novel_Fragment_Sep_24_1962-003.jpg
Stonington_Novel_Fragment_Sep_24_1962-004.jpg
Rights Holder: Washington University in St. Louis
Rights: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Item sets: Merrill; Merrill Life Archive

Media: Stonington_Novel_Fragment_Sep_24_1962-001.jpg; Stonington_Novel_Fragment_Sep_24_1962-002.jpg; Stonington_Novel_Fragment_Sep_24_1962-003.jpg; Stonington_Novel_Fragment_Sep_24_1962-004.jpg

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