James Merrill First Edition Collection: Scripts for the Pageant, From the First Nine: Poems 1946-1976, The Changing Light at Sandover, Late Settings: Poems, Recitative: Prose, and A Different Person: A Memoir

MERRILL, James.

$1,500.00

Item Number: 145436

Collection of six first editions of the works of James Merrill; from the library of American playwright Michael Feingold. Octavo, six volumes, original cloth and wrappers, the collection includes: Stated first edition of ‘Scripts for the Pageant’ [New York: Atheneum, 1980]; Stated first edition of ‘From the First Nine: Poems 1946-1976’ [New York: Atheneum, 1982]; Stated first edition of ‘The Changing Light at Sandover: Including the Whole of The Book of Ephraim, Mirabell’s Books of Number, Scripts for the Pageant, and a new coda, The Higher Keys’ [New York: Atheneum. 1982]; Stated first edition of ‘Late Settings: Poems’ [New York: Atheneum, 1985]; First edition of ‘Recitative: Prose’ [San Francisco: North Point Press, 1986]; Stated first edition of ‘A Different Person: A Memoir’ [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, illustrated with photographs]. Association copies, each volume inscribed by the author on the title page to American critic, playwright, and translator Michael Feingold. All in very good condition with the exception of ‘The Changing Light at Sandover’ which is in good condition.

American poet James Ingram Merrill's poetry falls into two distinct bodies of work: the polished and formalist lyric poetry of his early career, and the epic narrative of occult communication with spirits and angels, titled The Changing Light at Sandover (published in three volumes from 1976 to 1980), which dominated his later career. His first book of poetry, First Poems, contains a selection of his earliest poems, most of which first appeared in The Hudson Review, The Kenyon Review, Partisan Review, and Quarterly Review of Literature including: The Black Swan, The Broken Bowl, Hour-Glass, and The Drowning Poet.