Dallas Public Library

James Merrill, life and art, Langdon Hammer

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. [809]-877) and index

individual biography

platesillustrations

index present

non fiction

James Merrill

bibliography

891427637

Langdon Hammer

life and art

"The first biography of one of the most important poets in the second half of the twentieth century, whose life story is unparalleled in its narrative interest. The story of James Merrill (1926-1995) is that of a young man escaping, but inevitably reproducing, the energies and obsessions of glamorous, powerful parents (his father founded Merrill Lynch); of a gay man inventing his identity against a shifting social and sexual backdrop; and of a brilliantly gifted poet testing the redemptive potential of his art. We see how Merrill, freed from having to work for a living, made his life itself a kind of work. After Amherst and a period of adventure in Italy, he returned to the New York art world of the 1950s (he met W. H. Auden, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, Larry Rivers) and began publishing his poems, novels, and plays. In 1953, he fell in love with budding writer David Jackson, who remained his companion for forty years while they explored "boys and bars" in Greece and elsewhere. At the same time, they were talking to the spirits of the otherworld using a Ouija board, which became an improbable source of poetic inspiration for Merrill. In his many collections of poetry and the candid letters and diaries that enrich every page of this deliciously readable life, Merrill created a prismatic art of multiple perspectives. Holding that life and art together in a complex, evolving whole, Langdon Hammer illuminates Merrill's "chronicles of love & loss" and the remarkable personal journey they record"--, Provided by publisher"A biography of the acclaimed poet James Merrill"--, Provided by publisher

Pt.I. Love And Money (1926-52) -- The Broken Home (1926-38) -- Costumes and Masks (1939-49) -- Rome (1950-52) -- Pt.II. Water Street (1953-61) -- David Jackson (1953-55) -- The Seraglio (1955-57) -- Water Street (1957-61) -- Pt.III. Greece The Crack in the Mirror (1962-64) -- Days of 1964 (1964-65) -- Chills and Fever, Passions and Betrayals (1965-67) -- Jack Frost's Tears (1967-68) -- DMc (1968-69) -- Proust's Law (1969-72) -- Pt.IV. The Other World (1972-83) -- Milk and Memory (1972-75) -- Mirabell (1975-77) -- Sandover (1977-82) -- Pt.V. Love And Death (1983-95) -- Peter (1983-86) -- Art and Affliction (1986-89) -- The Sun's Icy Tomb (1990-95) --