The Evolution of the Flightless Bird
             "How blessed were we, the Village of Stonington and all of us, to have been able to know and love James Ingram Merrill. To have the icon of American literature living here, acting just like one of us, an ordinary citizen, for forty-plus years, while touching our lives with light" (Boatwright 1). The strong statement, made by Mrs. Boatwright at the dedication of the James Merrill Reading Room, "...the icon of American literature..." reflects just what James Merrill was, an inspiration, a pioneer, and an icon of American literature that was looked upon by such poets as Robert Frost.
             James Ingram Merrill was born in New York City on March 3, 1926. He grew up in Manhattan and Southampton. He was the son of Charles E. Merrill, a co-founder of the brokerage firm now known as Merrill Lynch, an investment-banking firm (Britannica 1), and his second wife, Hellen Ingram Merrill, who published a small newspaper (Keene 1). James' home life was filled with wealth and privilege. As he was growing up he attended mostly private schools, and did a lot of personal study. He was taught both French and German. A passion from childhood onward was music, especially opera, to which he was introduced at the age of eleven (1). His parents divorced in 1939, when he was only thirteen. This traumatizing event reflects upon many of his poems (Encarta 1). At the age of eight, he was already producing a poem a day. When he was sixteen, while James was in prep school, his father had a book of them privately printed under the title Jim's Book (Academy 1).
             In 1943 after graduating from Lawrenceville, a preparatory school, in New Jersey, James went on to enrolled at Amherst College. There he met his favorite poet and hero Robert Frost. "In my second semester at Amherst one of my teachers arranged a tête-â-tête with Robert Frost, suggesting that I bring along two or thre...