David Noyes Jackson (September 16, 1922 – July 13, 2001) was the

life partner The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and colloquial language. colloquialism, Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral language, gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relatio ...

of poet

James Merrill James Ingram Merrill (March 3, 1926 – February 6, 1995) was an American poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1977 for '' Divine Comedies.'' His poetry falls into two distinct bodies of work: the polished and formalist lyri ...

(1926–1995).

Life

A writer and artist, Jackson is remembered today primarily for his literary collaboration with Merrill. The two men met in May 1953 in New York City, after a performance of Merrill's play, "The Bait." They shared homes in

Stonington, Connecticut Stonington is a town located on Long Island Sound in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The municipal limits of the town include the borough of Stonington (borough), Connecticut, Stonington, the villages of Pawcatuck, Connecticut, Pa ...

Key West, Florida Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Sigsbee Park, Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Islan ...

, and

Athens, Greece Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. "It was, I often thought, the happiest marriage I knew," wrote

Alison Lurie Alison Stewart Lurie (September 3, 1926December 3, 2020) was an American novelist and academic. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1984 novel ''Foreign Affairs''. Although better known as a novelist, she wrote many non-fiction books ...

, who got to know both men in the 1950s and thought enough of the relationship to write a memoir about it more than forty years later, ''Familiar Spirits'' (2001). Over the course of decades conducting

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French language, French word for "session", from the Old French , "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general and mundane: one ma ...

s with a

Ouija board The Ouija ( , ), also known as a Ouija board, spirit board, talking board, or witch board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the Latin alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", and occasionally "hello" and "goodbye", along ...

, Merrill and Jackson took down

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

transcriptions and messages from otherworldly entities. Merrill's and Jackson's ouija transcriptions were first published in verse form in ''The Book of Ephraim'' (printed for the first time in ''

Divine Comedies {{italic title ''Divine Comedies'' is the seventh book of poetry by James Merrill (1926–1995). Published in 1976 (see 1976 in poetry), the volume includes " Lost in Translation" and all of ''The Book of Ephraim''. ''The Book of Ephraim'' is ...

'', 1976, which was awarded the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

in 1977). Jackson collaborated with James Merrill on much of his most significant poetic output. '' The Book of Ephraim'' (1976), '' Mirabell: Books of Number'' (1978), and '' Scripts for the Pageant'' (1980) were all written with Jackson's assistance. Together, they constitute the epic trilogy ''

The Changing Light at Sandover ''The Changing Light at Sandover'' is a 560-page epic poem by James Merrill (1926–1995). Sometimes described as a postmodern apocalyptic epic, the poem was published in three volumes from 1976 to 1980, and as one volume "with a new coda" ...

'', a 560-page apocalyptic poem published in its entirety in 1982. He and James Merrill are buried side by side at Evergreen Cemetery, Stonington. Jackson's former wife and Merrill's friend, Doris Sewell Jackson is buried behind them.

Gallery

File:James Merrill and David Jackson House, Key West, FL.jpg, James Merrill and David Jackson House, Key West, Florida File:Evergreen Cemetery, Stonington, CT.jpg, Jackson and Merrill graves, Evergreen Cemetery, Stonington, Connecticut

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, David Noyes American gay artists 1922 births 2001 deaths 20th-century American artists 20th-century American writers American gay writers 20th-century American LGBTQ people