James Merrill
70 copies for sale · $20–$7,500 · 52 first editions · 37 signed
Notable copies for sale
Divine Comedies (first edition, signed) — Burnside Rare Books$600
The Changing Light at Sandover: Including, The Book of Ephraim, Mirabell's Books of Number (first edition, signed) — Michael Pyron Books$500
Bronze (first edition, signed) — Riverrun Books & Manuscripts$125
SOUVENIRS (first edition, signed) — Type Punch Matrix$100
The Fire Screen (first edition, signed) — Johnnycake Books$95
The Inner Room Poems (first edition, signed) — Good Books in the Woods$75
Peter (first edition, signed) — Riverrun Books & Manuscripts$75
Ideas, Etc. (first edition, signed) — Riverrun Books & Manuscripts$75
Short Stories (first edition, signed) — Burnside Rare Books$1,000
The Changing Light at Sandover: Including the whole of The Book of Ephraim, Mirabell's Boo (first edition, signed) — Burnside Rare Books$800
First Poems (first edition, signed) — Burnside Rare Books$250
FROM THE FIRST NINE: POEMS, 1946-1976 (first edition, signed) — Michael Pyron Books$100
Works on the market
The Diblos Notebook3 copies · $100–$550
Yannina3 copies · $150–$450
Short Stories2 copies · $750–$1,000
OCCASIONS & INSCRIPTIONS2 copies · $300–$850
The Yellow Pages. 59 Poems2 copies · $150–$600
Samos2 copies · $75–$350
FIRST POEMS2 copies · $75–$250
Nights and Days2 copies · $125–$200
The Image Maker. A Play in One Act2 copies · $100–$150
FROM THE FIRST NINE: POEMS, 1946-19762 copies · $30–$100
Country of a Thousand Years of Peace; And Other Poems2 copies · $75–$80
SELECTED POEMS; 1946-19852 copies · $53–$75
The Diblos Notebook A Novel2 copies · $30–$70
From the Cutting-room Floor2 copies · $35–$60
SCRIPTS FOR THE PAGEANT2 copies · $20–$50
Collection of Correspondence to Poetry editor Harry Ford1 copy · $7,500
The Thousand and Second Night1 copy · $2,000
VOLCANIC HOLIDAY1 copy · $1,500
Market context
4 copies of James Merrill's works have left the market recently; the median last-listed price was $67 (last listed prices at time of sale or removal, not confirmed sale prices).
Recent auction results (hammer prices, premiums not included):
Volcanic Holiday, letter 'R' of 26 lettered copies from an edition limited to 110 copies, (forum, 2026-07-23)£200
Listings aggregated from rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide; refreshed continually. Prices are seller asking prices unless marked as auction results.