James Merrill
Poet
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose best-known works include Divine Comedies and Nights and Days. He also published several dramatic works, including The Image Maker and The Immortal Husband.
He graduated summa cum laude from Amherst College. While still an undergraduate, he published The Black Swan, a poetic work that earned him the Glascock Prize.
His epic work, The Changing Light at Sandover, was inspired by otherworldly messages that he had received during his frequent Ouija Board sessions and seances.
He was romantically involved with his Amherst College poetry professor, Kimon Friar, and he later had relationships with Peter Hooten and David Jackson. Sadly, Merrill died in 1995 from complications of AIDS.
He was influenced by the work of W.H. Auden.