Exhibit Items from the 1940s

1. LAWRENCEVILLE LITERARY MAGAZINE
   Volume 47, Number 1 (October 1941)
   [Lawrenceville, New Jersey: Lawrenceville School], 1941.
   

   James Ingram Merrill attended the highly rated Lawrenceville prep school from 1939 to 1943; his stories and poems appeared in the student literary magazine and he joined the editorial staff in 1942. This issue is open to the poem "Nocturne". Accompanying is the 1942 Christmas issue of The Lit, open to Merrill's poem "Christmas 1500", which appeared about the same time in a considerably revised and shortened form in his first published collection, Jim's Book.

   James Merrill has said that he began to write poems at Lawrenceville due to his friendship with fellow student Frederick Buechner, who shared editorial chores at The Lit and also published in its pages. Buechner was to become an author of note himself, perhaps best known for his first novel, A Long Day's Dying, issued in 1950.
   
   
   

2. JIM'S BOOK: A COLLECTION OF POEMS AND SHORT STORIES
   New York: Privately Printed, 1942.
   Limited to approximately 200 copies.
   
   Grey paper over boards, maroon cloth spine; title and author printed in gold on front cover; glassine dust wrapper. Printed at the Plimpton Press, Norwood, Massachusetts.

   James Merrill's first book was published as a surprise by his father when the author was sixteen years old. The book is one of the most highly sought after volumes of modern poetry. Washington University is very fortunate to have two copies of Jim's Book, one the gift of Mr. Merrill in December 1968 and the other inscribed to his grandmother at Christmas 1942 and given to the Library in December 1982 by Mr. Merrill's mother, Mrs. Hellen I. Plummer.
   
   
   

3. PHOTOGRAPH OF PRIVATE JAMES MERRILL IN UNITED STATES ARMY UNIFORM
   1944
   6 1/2" x 9", labelled "Proof Only".

   James Merrill entered Amherst College, his father's alma mater, in 1943. His studies were interrupted by service in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1945. He returned to Amherst after his discharge and was graduated at age 20 with a B.A. degree summa cum laude in 1947. His undergraduate thesis was on metaphor in Proust, a copy of which is among his papers at Washington University.

   An early appearance in Poetry magazine in 1946 was honored with the Oscar Blumenthal Prize in 1947, a very special achievement for an undergraduate.
   
   
   

4. THE MEDUSA
   Volume I, Number I (Fall 1946)
   [all published]
   Edited by James Merrill and William Burford.
   
   Deep pink stapled wrappers printed in black.

   Four of James Merrill's poems appear in this magazine, which took the name The Medusa from a student organization at Amherst College, although it was published independently. The periodical includes work by members of the group and their guests; some of the pieces had appeared earlier in other publications. Contributors include Kimon Friar, Anais Nin, and Maya Deren as well as Merrill and Burford, the editors. The periodical is open to Merrill's poem, "The Black Swan." The text of the poem was unaltered in subsequent printings in The Black Swan (1946) and First Poems (1951) but changes have been made by the time of its appearance in From the First Nine: Poems 1946-1976 [1983]. The three other poems in the magazine are "The Broken Bowl", "From Morning into Morning", and "Medusa".
   
   
   

5. THE BLACK SWAN AND OTHER POEMS
   Athens: Icaros, 1946.
   
   Limited to 100 numbered copies not for sale. This is copy 52. Presentation copy, with the Greek inscription facing the title poem translated by the author: "Of all my friends I have found you most a friend".
   
   Pale blue-grey sewn wrappers; cover title printed in black and red, featuring a black swan reflected in water; publisher's logo printed in black on rear cover; glassine dust jacket. Printed by M. Myrtidis in October 1946.

   This collection of twelve poems is dedicated to Kimon Friar, who introduced the young poet to a variety of modern writers while he was an undergraduate. Washington University is very fortunate to hold two copies of this book, one a gift of Mrs. Hellen I. Plummer.
   
   
   

6. THE BIRTHDAY: A PLAY IN VERSE
   [No place: no publisher, 1947]
   
   Mimeographed sheets, on recto only, 14"x 8 1/2", 13 pp.; issued stapled in upper left corner.
   Accompanied by a photograph of a scene from the play, the Gift of Thomas Howkins.

   Merrill's play was performed at Kirby Theatre, Amherst College, May 22 and 23, 1947, when Merrill was a senior. The production was part of a one-act play competition. Washington University's copy of the play has "Charles", one of the character's names, written in the upper right corner of the first page; possibly this was the actor's copy. There are three changes in the text: one line is eliminated, and two words are altered. Comparison with the final, undated typescript in the Merrill Papers, shows that these changes were not made until production.

   It is thought that approximately 30 copies of the production text were prepared.
   
   
   

7. TEN POETS ANTHOLOGY
   East Dorset, Vermont: Anthony Harrigan, Publisher, [ca. 1947]
   Limited to approximately 200 copies.
   
   Off-white wrappers with title printed in red on cover.

   James Merrill's contribution to this pamphlet is the poem, "The Formal Lovers", along with a previously unpublished autobiographical statement mentioning in part his receipt of the Irene Glascock Memorial Poetry Prize at Mt. Holyoke in 1946. Other contributors include Frederick Buechner and Richard Wilbur.
   
   
   

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