Familiar
Spirits : A Memoir of James Merrill and David Jackson by
Alison Lurie
A leading American novelist's memory of a major
contemporary American poet and the spirits that haunted his most
celebrated and controversial work, Alison Lurie is known for the
sophisticated satire and Pulitzer-winning prose of her novels and
stories. In Familiar Spirits, she lovingly evokes two
true-life intimates who are now lost to her. In her signature mix
of comedy and analysis Lurie recalls Merrill and his longtime
partner, David Jackson and their lives together in New York,
Athens, Stonington, Connecticut, and Key West.
Familiar Spirits reveals both the worldly and other worldly
sources of what Merrill called his "chronicles of love and
loss." Merrill was known for the autobiographical element in
his work and here, we are introduced to the over thirty years of
Ouija board sessions that brought gods and ghosts into his and
David Jackson's lives, and also into Merill's brilliant book
length poem, The Changing
Light at Sandover.
Lurie suggests that Jackson's contribution to this work was so
great that he might, in a sense, be recognized as Merrill's
coauthor. Her account of Merrill and Jackson's long and inspired
relationship with the supernatural and its tragic end will not
only surprise many readers, but stand as a poignant memorial to
her lost friends.
![Voice of the Poet: Merrill [UNABRIDGED]](../images/cover_merril4.gif)
Voice
of the Poet: Merrill by
James Merrill (Reader)
James
Merrill, the son of Merrill Lynch cofounder Charles Lynch, rose
from a privileged but unsettled childhood to become one of the
leading lyrical poets of the 20th century. Composed of rare,
self-read recordings and a booklet containing the text of each
poem, The Voice of the Poet: James Merrill celebrates
Merrill and his complex grapplings with love and loss. Listeners
will immerse themselves in the poet's melodic narration in such
classics as "The Days of 1964," "An Urban
Convalescence," and "Lost in Translation."
"The Broken Home," a reflection on his parents' widely
publicized divorce, nails Merrill's love/loss dichotomy perfectly
by showing his struggle to reconcile their differences.
A
Scattering of Salts : Poems by
James Merrill, Harry Ford (Editor)
These
poems are the last polished, published works of a poet who took
full advantage of his gifts and lived an observant, responsive,
and loving life. In his fourteenth book of poetry, Merrill sees
the world from unexpected vantage points and is bemused by the
antics of cats and dogs, men, boys, and women. Age is a surprise,
music a blessing, the sea a magnet. The tragic and the absurd are
blown about together in a gritty whirlwind as science and politics
distract us from the ancient sanctity of earth, and poetry
reclaims it. "Morning star / evening star salt of the sky /
First the grave dissolving into dawn / then the crucial
recrystallizing / from inmost depths of clear dark blue." Donna
Seaman from Booklist
