Exhibit Items from the 1980s

57. SCRIPTS FOR THE PAGEANT
    New York: Atheneum, 1980.
    First edition, cloth issue.
    
    Green cloth over boards; title printed in blind on front cover; title, author and publisher printed in silver on spine; green endpapers, top edge orange. White dust jacket printed in silver, black and red with an illustration in blue, green and brown.
    
    SCRIPTS FOR THE PAGEANT
    New York: Atheneum, 1980.
    First edition, paper issue, published simultaneously. Gift of the publisher, with publicity release and review slip laid in, noting publication date of April 30, 1980.
    
    Stiff white wrappers printed in silver, black and red, with the same illustrations as the cloth dust jacket.
    
    Kenyon Review. New series. Volume I, number 3 (Summer, 1979). Includes "Scripts for the Pageant/The First Five Lessons," pp. 158-178. Gift of Mrs. Louis Henry Cohn.
    
    In the Kenyon Review appearance, James Merrill provides a preview of Scripts for the Pageant, the concluding volume of the monumental long poem, printed with an informative introduction, in which he discusses particular aspects of Mirabell, contrasting that book with what is to be found in Scripts. Charles Berger has described the epic as "what may well be the most astonishing poem ever written by an American.... For Mirabell and Scripts raise so many profound questions about sacred poetry and the relation of the individual to the cosmos, that evading their doctrines would also entail ignoring the wisdom literature of Merrill's greatest predecessors--poets such as Dante, Homer, Milton, Blake."
    
    
    
58. IDEAS, ETC.
    [New York: Jordan Davies, 1980]
    Limited to 200 signed and numbered copies. This is copy 42.
    
    Four cream sheets folded and sewn into unprinted grey wrappers; rose dust wrappers with title and author printed in red within decorative border on the front cover.
    
    The poems in this slim collection are "Lenses", "Ideas", and "Think Tank", which first appeared in the periodicals Ploughshares, The Nation, and Georgia Review.
    
    
    
59. SAMOS
    Los Angeles: Sylvester & Orphanos, 1980.
    Limited to 300 numbered copies signed by the author. This is copy 50. There were also 26 lettered and 4 ad personum copies all signed and issued in a black buckram-covered slipcase.
    
    Ten white leaves and four blank leaves gathered and cased into grayish-olive green cloth over boards; author and title printed in black and gold on front cover, black leather label with title and author printed in gold on spine; acetate dust wrapper. Designed by Grant Dahlstrom and printed at the Castle Press.
    
    "Samos" first appeared in The New Yorker magazine. The poem, in six stanzas, begins the first section of "&" in Scripts for the Pageant and is published in this edition with only one minor variant.
    
    
    
60. [HARVARD/RADCLIFFE PHI BETA KAPPA LITERARY EXERCISES]
    
    Program, June 3, 1980. Single sheet folded, printed in black.
    
    James Merrill was invited to give the Phi Beta Kappa poem for 1980. He chose "The Ballroom at Sandover". The poem subsequently had its first printed appearance in Harvard Magazine (September-October, 1980).
    
    
    
61. POETS & WRITERS, INC. TENTH BIRTHDAY PARTY
    [New York: Poets & Writers, 1980]
    
    Stiff white wrappers with a multi-color reproduction of Paul Davis' depiction of Roseland on the front cover.
    
    This chapbook of poems, stories, cartoons and patron advertising was published as part of the celebration of Poets & Writers Tenth Birthday, a benefit affair. James Merrill has contributed the four-line poem, "Laser Majesty", marking its first publication.
    
    
    
62. NINETEEN POEMS
    By Robert Morse
    No place: [Temple Press, 1981]
    Foreword by James Merrill
    
    Stiff pale blue wrappers with author and title printed in green on front cover.
    
    In his preliminary remarks, James Merrill pays tribute to his old friend's many accomplishments. Robert Morse is a well-remembered figure in both Mirabell and Scripts for the Pageant.
    
    
    
63. [first line]
    [Atlanta, Georgia: Privately Printed], 1982.
    
    Broadside, 4 1/2" x 6"
    White card stock. James Merrill's handwritten poem and Mrs. Plummer's message reproduced in black on verso; name and address and illustrations reproduced in blue on recto.
    
    An unknown number of copies of James Merrill's six-line poem were produced as a postcard thank-you note for use by his mother. The text is reproduced in Occasions & Inscriptions (1984).
    
    
    
64. SANTORINI: STOPPING THE LEAK
    Worcester: Metacom Press, 1982.
    First edition, paper issue. Limited to 300 numbered copies signed by the author. This is copy 62. Metacom Limited Editions Series No. 8.
    
    Six cream sheets folded and sewn into mottled grey wrappers with a maroon dust wrapper also sewn on; white paper label with author and title printed in black and maroon on front cover. Designed, printed and bound by Nancy King and William Ferguson.
    
    SANTORINI: STOPPING THE LEAK
    Worcester: Metacom Press, 1982.
    First edition, cloth issue. Limited to 26 lettered copies signed by the author, not for sale. Copy V.
    
    Natural linen cloth over boards; white paper label with author and title printed in black and maroon on front cover; maroon endpapers; acetate dust wrapper.
    
    This edition of the poem is the first publication of the full text. "Santorini: Stopping the Leak" first appeared in The New Yorker, minus the twelfth and twenty-ninth stanzas.
    
    
    
65. YALE UNIVERSITY TWO HUNDREDTH AND EIGHTY-FIRST COMMENCEMENT
    New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University, 1982.
    
    Program, photograph and miscellaneous related pieces.
    Gift of Mrs. Hellen I. Plummer.
    
    James Merrill was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Yale University on May 24, 1982. The Citation, written by Professor Harold Bloom, the well-known critic, reads:
    You have been recognized as the supreme artist among your own generation of American poets. Your lyrics are subtle, profound, and turned so finely as to touch the limits of art. Recently, you have given us your Commedia as the extraordinary trilogy of long poems, which have been compared to those of the century's greats and are worthy of that company. For your enduring contribution to American poetry, Yale confers upon you the degree of Doctor of Letters.
    
    
    
    
66. AMHERST COLLEGE 35TH REUNION JUNE 3-6, 1982
    [Amherst, Massachusetts: Amherst College, 1982]
    
    Stiff white wrappers printed in purple and black.
    
    Includes autobiographical sketch by James Merrill in response to a college reunion questionnaire. Merrill's one-page handwritten statement is reproduced in facsimile.
    
    
    
67. MARBLED PAPER
    Salem, Oregon: Charles Seluzicki Fine Books, 1982.
    Limited to 200 copies signed by the author.
    
    Five white sheets printed in black, red and grey and two grey sheets folded and sewn into heavy grey wrappers with one of the masks printed in grey on the front cover. Printed by Christine Bertelson at the Rara Avis Press in Riverside, California.
    
    This interesting collection includes the poems "Hubbell Pierce (1925-80)", about an old school friend, "Palm Beach with Portuguese Man-of-War", "The Help", "Tsikoudhia", "Opaque Morning W.C.W.", "Acrostic", "Last Mornings in California", and "Lorelei". Some of the poems had earlier appearances in magazines, an exhibit catalogue of the works of Tom Ingle, The Fire Screen and The Yellow Pages. The illustrations in this very handsome production were taken from photographs of funeral masks unearthed by Heinrich Schliemann at Mycenae.
    
    
    
68. PETER
    [Old Deerfield, Massachusetts: The Deerfield Press/[Dublin, Ireland]: The Gallery Press, [1982]
    Illustrated and hand-coloured by Timothy Engelland.
    Limited to 300 copies signed by the author.
    
    Black cloth with title, author and publishers printed in gold on spine; avocado endpapers; avocado dust jacket printed in black.
    
    Accompanied by autograph and typescript worksheets for "Peter's Tattoos", 12 pp.
    
    Part 1 of "Peter" was first published in The New Yorker under the title "Peter's Tattoos".
    
    
    
69. THE CHANGING LIGHT AT SANDOVER
    New York: Atheneum, 1982 [i.e. 1983]
    First edition, cloth issue. Issued simultaneously in paper wrappers.
    
    Black cloth over boards, author's initials and title printed in blind on front cover; title, author and publisher printed in iridescent bronze on spine; purple pictorial endpapers reproducing photographs and a silhouette of some of the principal figures in the poem; top edge deep pink; white dust jacket printed in dark brown, black and lavender. Errata slip correcting the third and fourth stanzas of Book 7.6 of Mirabell is laid in. Although the title page states 1982, the book was in fact published in January 1983.
    
    THE CHANGING LIGHT AT SANDOVER
    New York: Atheneum, 1982 [i.e. 1983]
    First edition, paper issue.
    
    Stiff wrappers printed in dark brown, black and lavender, with the same pictorial material as on endpapers above on recto only. Errata slip, as above, laid in.
    
    Accompanied by a late typescript of Mirabell: Books of Number, 77 pp.
    
    The Changing Light at Sandover collects in one volume the whole of "The Book of Ephraim", Mirabell: Books of Number, Scripts for the Pageant and adds a new Coda: The Higher Keys. Washington University Library holds the worksheets of all sections of the long poem. Shown here is a late draft of Books O-6 of Mirabell: Books of Number assembled with the cut and paste technique, probably the only practical way to handle such a long and complex poem. Interestingly, the typewriter used could produce both roman and italic faces but all the ampersands have been added in pencil in James Merrill's hand.
    
    
    
70. FROM THE FIRST NINE: POEMS 1946-1976
    New York: Atheneum, 1982 [i.e. 1983]
    First edition, cloth issue. Issued simultaneously in wrappers.
    
    Off-white linen cloth over boards; author's initials and title printed in blind on front cover; author, title and publisher printed in iridescent bronze on spine; off-white endpapers; top edge blue. White dust jacket printed in blue and black, featuring a photograph of James Merrill by Thomas Victor on the front cover. Although the title page states 1982, the book was in fact published in January 1983.
    
    FROM THE FIRST NINE: POEMS 1946-1976
    New York: Atheneum, 1982 [i.e. 1983]
    First edition, paper issue.
    
    Stiff white wrappers printed in blue and black, featuring the same photograph.
    
    Accompanied by worksheets of the poem "The Cosmological Eye", retitled "The Blue Eye", 5 pp.
    
    From the First Nine: Poems 1946-1976 collects in one volume all the poems James Merrill wished to preserve from his first nine trade books, that is, from The Black Swan through Divine Comedies. A postscript poem, "Clearing the Title", first published in 1980, has been added. The poet has elected, however, to revise some of the poems once again, as he explains in the "Note" at the conclusion of the volume. As an example, he reprints the first version of "The Cosmological Eye" from The Black Swan, radically changed and retitled "The Blue Eye". The worksheets for this rewriting, shown here, are dated March 1979.
    
    
    
71. NORTHERN LIGHTS [spine title]
    [Winston-Salem: Palaemon Press Limited, 1983]
    Limited to 95 copies, signed by the poets, of which 55 numbered copies are for sale and 20 lettered copies are for the use of the poets and publisher. This is copy 24.
    
    Portfolio of 15 broadsides. 14" x 19" with a colophon leaf 10" x 7", issued collectively under the title Northern Lights. No title page.
    White leaves printed in black and red. Laid into a folding case of natural linen with marbled paper sides in light brown, dark grey, rust and yellow; brown ties. Black leather label printed in gold on spine.
    
    This portfolio includes the only appearance to date of James Merrill's poem "Sentimental Colloquy." The other poets in Northern Lights are Philip Booth, John Ciardi, Donald Davie, Anthony Hecht, W.S. Merwin, Howard Moss, Howard Nemerov, Karl Shapiro, Louis Simpson, Mark Strand, W.D. Snodgrass, Radcliffe Squires, William Stafford and John Updike.
    
    
    
72. THINK TANK
    [Amherst: The Friends of the Amherst College Library], 1983.
    Limited to 450 copies.
    
    Single white leaf, french-folded to make four pages, printed in red and black, issued in a mailing envelope printed in red.
    Gift of Amherst College.
    
    "Think Tank" first appeared in the Georgia Review in 1976, was collected in Ideas, etc. (1980), and was first separately published in 1983 when James Merrill served as the sixth Robert Frost Library Fellow at Amherst College; the piece was presented to guests at a dinner on April 29, 1983. An account of the dinner and a reprinting of the piece may be found in Vol. XI of the Newsletter of the Friends of the Amherst College Library 1983.
    
    
    
73. THE WATERFALL
    [New York: Glenn Horowitz, 1983]
    Illustrated by Robert Perkins.
    Limited to 40 numbered copies and a few artist's proofs signed by artist and author. This is Copy 30. 15 lettered copies were also produced for inclusion in a future portfolio.
    
    Broadside, 29 1/2" x 18 3/4". Single cream leaf lithographed in black and red.
    
    The text of this striking lithograph is comprised of the third and fourth stanzas of section three of "McKane's Falls", which first appeared in Poetry magazine and was collected in Part I of Divine Comedies. In a letter of November 5, 1984 to this compiler, James Merrill explains: "In the present case I went down to the studio and wrote out the lines on the lithograph stone; on a 2nd stone [Perkins] then contrived the waterfall which partially obliterates them."
    
    
    
74. FROM THE CUTTING-ROOM FLOOR
    Omaha, Nebraska: Abattoir Editions, 1983.
    Limited to 290 copies. This is copy 83.
    
    White Goyu papers, folded and sewn Japanese-style into rust wrappers with a white label printed in black within a decorative rust border on the front cover. Printed by Harry Duncan and bound by Alison Wilson.
    
    This is a beautiful piece of printing. The intricacies of James Merrill's text, which would have been traumatic for a lesser hand typesetter, are impeccably handled by the master craftsman, Harry Duncan. The cover label to this sequence of poems sets the stage: "James Merrill with shades of William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Elvis Presley, Gertrude Stein, Mirabell, Maria Mitsotaki, Robert Morse, Wallace Stevens and the angel Michael."
    
    
    
75. THE EVOLUTION OF THE FLIGHTLESS BIRD
    By Richard Kenney
    New Haven and London: Yale University Press, [1984]
    First edition, cloth issue. Yale Series of Younger Poets, volume 79.
    
    Blue cloth over boards; author, title and publisher printed in gold on spine. White dust jacket printed in blue and black.
    
    Publication in the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition is open to any American writer under forty years of age who has not previously published a volume of poetry. James Merrill served as judge for the 1983 competition and contributed a fine introduction to the collection.
    
    
    
76. BRONZE
    [New York]: Nadja, [1984]
    Limited to 150 numbered copies and 26 lettered copies, all signed by the author. This is copy 50.
    
    Sewn white sheets laced into blue paper over boards; title printed in blue on front cover.
    
    "Bronze" first appeared in the magazine Grand Street. This handsome production of the poem celebrates the sixth year of the Nadja imprint, Carol Sturm and Douglas Wolf, proprietors.
    
    
    
77. SOUVENIRS
    [New York]: Nadja, [1984]
    Limited to 200 numbered copies and 26 lettered copies, all signed by the author. This is copy 58.
    
    Five off-white sheets folded and sewn into a twice-folded green wrapper, with title printed in red on front cover.
    
    The poems in this collection are "An Upset", "The Metro", "The House Fly", "The Suppliant", "The Illustrations", "The Pier: Under Pisces", "Dead Center", and "The Blue Grotto".
    
    
    
78. OCCASIONS & INSCRIPTIONS
    [New York: Jordan Davies, 1984]
    Limited to 58 copies.
    Five white sheets folded and sewn into maroon wrappers, folded at the foredge. Errata sheet for [p. 14] laid in.
    
    These brief occasional poems, five of which appeared in the 1974 broadside Five Inscriptions, were collected and arranged by J.D. McClatchy and Alfred Corn for presentation to James Merrill on his 58th birthday. The earliest poem is dated 1952 and the latest 1983. In addition to the error corrected on the laid-in slip, other typographical errors occur.
    
    
    

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