Stuart Fitzrandolph Merrill (August 1, 1863 in

Hempstead, New York The Town of Hempstead (also known historically as South Hempstead) is the largest of the three towns in Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead and Oyster Bay) in the U.S. state of New York. It occupies the southwestern part of the county, on ...

– December 1, 1915 in

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France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

) was an American poet, who wrote mostly in the French language. He belonged to the Symbolist school. His principal books of poetry were ''Les Gammes'' (1887), ''Les Fastes'' (1891), and ''Petits Poèmes d'Automne'' (1895). Stuart Merrill - reading

Life

Merrill was the product of a conservative, wealthy, Protestant upbringing. In 1866, his father George received a diplomatic appointment to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, where Merrill would learn French and live for the next 19 years. Stéphane Mallarmé was one of Merrill's school instructors. His classmates included future symbolists René Ghil and Pierre Quillard. Merrill ran a weekly journal, ''Le fou'', before returning to the States in 1884 to attend law school. On April 15, 1887, Merrill went to Madison Square Theater in New York to hear

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

give his famous " Death of Abraham Lincoln" lecture. Afterwards, Merrill had the opportunity to meet Whitman, an experience he later recorded in the magazine "Le Masque."Stuart Merrill, ''Walt Whitman'' (Toronto: Henry S. Saunders, 1922) Also in 1887, Merrill published his first book of poems, ''Les gammes'', in Paris, and received wide critical acclaim in Europe. As his literary career took off he participated in radical political causes, siding with the

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

in the famous Haymarket riots. When

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

attempted to circulate a petition in London calling for the release of Oscar Wilde, imprisoned for

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

, Merrill made a similar attempt to get notable artists and intellectuals to sign a similar petition in the United States. Although Merrill's father disinherited him for his politics, his mother would continue to support him financially throughout his life. In 1890, Merrill published ''Pastels in Prose'', a collection of his translations of French prose poems. This was his only book to be published in America during his lifetime. The same year, he returned to Europe permanently and he married in 1891. For the years 1893–1908, his address was 53 Quai de Bourbon, Île Saint-Louis, Paris. Several more books, including ''Les fastes'' in 1891 and ''Petits poèmes d’automne'' in 1895, were published before his death of heart disease in 1915. In 1927 a small traffic way in the

17th arrondissement of Paris The 17th arrondissement of Paris (''XVIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le dix-septième'' (; "the seventeenth"). The arrondissement, known as Batignol ...

took the name Place Stuart-Merrill.

Works

* ''Les gammes'' (''The Ranges''), Vanier, Paris, 1887 * ''Pastels en Prose'', Harper & Brothers, New York, 1890 * ''Les Fastes'' (''The Record''), 1891 * ''Petits Poèmes d'Automne'' (''Little Autumnal Poems''), 1895 * ''Les quatre saisons'' (''The Four Seasons''), Mercure de France, Paris, 1900 * ''Walt Whitman'', Henry S. Saunders, 1922 * ''Prose et vers : œuvres posthumes'' (''Prose and Verse: Posthumous Works''), A. Messein, Paris, 1925 * ''The White Tomb: Selected Writing'', Talisman House, 1999

References

External links

* * *
Poems by Stuart Merrill

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Merrill, Stuart 1863 births 1915 deaths People from Hempstead (village), New York French-language poets American male poets American poets in French American writers in French Symbolist poets French–English translators 19th-century translators 19th-century American male writers