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Biography James Ingram Merrill

1990 Bobbitt Prize Winner

James Ingram Merrill (credit: The New London Day)

James Ingram Merrill (1926-1995) was born in New York City in 1926. He authored 24 collections of poetry, including The Changing Light at Sandover (1982), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Inner Room (1988), winner of the first Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress; Mirabell: Books of Number (1978), winner of the National Book Award; Divine Comedies (1976), winner of the Pulitzer Prize; and Nights and Days (1966), also winner of the National Book Award. He also published a memoir, a collection of essays, two novels, and five plays. From 1979-1995, Merrill was a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. During his career, Merrill served in the U.S. Army for one year and taught at Bard College for one year. In 1956, he founded the Ingram Merrill Foundation, which awards grants to hundreds of artists and writers. James Ingram Merrill died in 1995.

Audio Recordings with James Ingram Merrill

Selected Works at the Library of Congress