March 9, 2001
Washington University Libraries will host a symposium titled "James Merrill: A Celebration" on March 22.
James Merrill (1925-1995) has been called "the leading lyric poet of his generation." A prolific writer of poetry, fiction and drama, Merrill won a Pulitzer Prize for "Divine Comedies" and two National Book Awards for "Nights and Days" and "Mirabell: Books of Number."
Merrill also received the Bollingen Prize in Poetry, a National Book Critics Circle Award for "The Changing Light at Sandover" and the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry. He served as Connecticut's poet laureate.
Merrill had a long association with the University Libraries. As the primary repository for his papers, the libraries' Special Collections department houses a nearly comprehensive collection of works by or about Merrill, as well as most of his manuscripts and a wide array of photographs, interviews and ephemera.
This symposium marks the release of Merrill's "Collected Poems" (Knopf, February 2001) and recognizes the passage of what would have been his 75th birthday March 3.
Scheduled events include a lecture by Timothy Materer and a discussion of Merrill's work by panelists Jack Hagstrom, J.D. McClatchy and Stephen Yenser. This program will be held in the Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall.
A reception and exhibition of items from the libraries' James Merrill Collection will immediately follow in the Special Collections department in Olin Library, Level 5. "Collected Poems" and several other books by Merrill and recent works by program participants will be available for purchase. Items from the program will be on display in Special Collections through May 22.
A reading of Merrill poems begins at 7:30 p.m. in Simon Hall Auditorium with Mary Jo Bang, William Gass, J.D. McClatchy, Lynne McMahon, Carl Phillips, Sherod Santos and Stephen Yenser reading selected poems. This program will conclude with a slide show on Merrill, compiled by J.D. McClatchy.
The day's events are free, but registration is required by March 15. For more details about the program or to register online, visit www.library.wustl.edu/units/spec/merrill. To be added to the mailing list, call the Special Collections department, 935-5495.
For more information about the Merrill Collection at University Libraries visit www.library. wustl.edu/units/spec/manuscripts/mlc/merrill.
Panelist Information¥ Mary Jo Bang, assistant professor of English in Arts & Sciences, is the author of two books of poetry and recipient of the Bakeless Prize. ¥ William Gass, the David May Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Humanities in Arts & Sciences and former director of the International Writers Center at the University, has written many works of fiction, literary criticism and philosophy. He has won two National Book Critics Circle Awards - for "Habitations of the Word" and for "Finding a Form" - and a Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award. ¥ Jack Hagstrom, professor emeritus of pathology at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, co-authored a bibliography of the works of Thom Gunn and is working on a bibliography of Merrill's work. ¥ Tim Materer, professor of English at the University of Missouri, Columbia, wrote "Merrill's Apocalypse" and "Modernist Alchemy: Poetry and the Occult," as well as several other studies of modern literature. ¥ J.D. McClatchy is co-editor of James Merrill's newly published "Collected Poems." He is editor of The Yale Review and has written several books of poetry and literary essays. In 1996, he was named a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. ¥ Lynne McMahon, professor of English and creative writing at the University of Missouri, Columbia, has published three books of poetry. Her essays, reviews, or poems have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone and many other publications. She has won grants and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Missouri Arts Council and the Ingram-Merrill Foundation. ¥ Carl Phillips, director of the Creative Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, has authored several books of poetry. He has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award and has won prizes and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Library of Congress. ¥ Sherod Santos, professor of English at the University of Missouri, Columbia, has written four books of poetry. He has won an Award for Literary Excellence from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and fellowships from the Ingram-Merrill Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. ¥ Stephen Yenser, professor of English and director of creative writing at the University of California-Los Angeles, co-edited Merrill's "Collected Poems" and wrote "The Consuming Myth: The Work of James Merrill." His poems and essays have appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, The Yale Review, The Paris Review, Poetry and other magazines. He has won a Discovery Award, two Fulbright teaching fellowships, an Ingram Merrill Foundation Award and the B.F. Connors Prize for Poetry.
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