A
Finding Aid
Prepared
By
Margaret Sherry
Manuscripts Division
Department of Rare Books and Special Collections
Princeton University Library
1996
Range of Collection Dates: 1936-1991
Range of Collection Bulk Dates: [1954]-1988
Size: 10 linear ft. (21 manuscript boxes, one scrapbook)
Language: Some of the business correspondence is in French and German due to the fact that several of Merrick's novels were translated into those languages.
Provenance: Merrick's papers were left to the long-term partner of his adult years, Charles Hulse, who sold them to the Library in 1991.
Photocopying, literary rights and citation: Single photocopies
may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from
the collection must be requested from the Associate University Librarian
for Rare Books and Special Collections. Researchers are responsible for
determining any question of copyright. Citations should be as follows:
[collection name], Box and Folder #s, Manuscripts Division, Department
of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Libraries.
In 1941 he abandoned the theatre to become a journalist. Exempt from the draft because of a hearing condition, he got his first journalism job with the Washington Star, then moved on to the Baltimore Sun, and finally to the New York Post. Merrick regarded journalism as his apprenticeship in writing. In early 1944, after training with the O.S.S. (or what is now the C.I.A.), he was sent to Algeria to engage in counter-espionage, but ended up in Cannes instead on the Côte d'Azur with French identification papers. In August of 1945 he repatriated to the United States. He tried but failed to obtain a job as Paris correspondent for the New York Post, so he went to Mexico instead, where he could live very cheaply, and began writing novels.
With the success of his first novel The Strumpet Wind (1947) he decided to return to France. The next nine years brought little success to his writing career, and, distressed by political unrest in France because of the Algerian War, Merrick decided to move to a Greek island by the name of Hydra where he bought a house and lived until tourism made life there intolerable too. In 1975 he discovered the Orient and bought himself a house in Ceylon, but on visiting France again purchased a home in Tricqueville in Normandy. Thus he ended up by dividing his time between France and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), where he died of lung cancer on March 27, 1988.
Merrick's best-known book, The Lord Won't Mind, appeared on the
New York Times best-seller list in 1970 for sixteen weeks. It was
the first in a trilogy that included One for the Gods (1971/72)
and Forth into Light (1974). At a time when homosexuality was still
viewed as a closet identity which could only end in tragedy, Merrick wrote
openly about gay love that ended happily. Among the items left of the personal
papers of Charles G. Hulse, in the series "Papers of Other Persons," is
a summary of some of Gordon Merrick's novels which helps to illuminate
their avant-garde timing in the history of gay and lesbian fiction. In
addition to his trilogy, Merrick also wrote at least eighteen other novels
in the course of thirty-nine years, including An Idol for Others
(1977), The Quirk (1978), Now Let's Talk about Music (1981),
Perfect Freedom (1982), The Great Urge Downward (1984), and
A Measure of Madness (1986).
Consists primarily of the working drafts, sometimes many versions, of the manuscripts for eighteen novels and three short stories, as well as fragments of two playscripts, the typescript of the television adaptation of his first novel The Strumpet Wind (1947), and drafts of three essays. The drafts are undated but range from early versions of The Lord Won't Mind to the unpublished draft of The Good Life, a novel which Merrick was working on when he died. Not all of the novel manuscripts in the collection were published, and not all of the published novels are represented by manuscripts in the collection. Merrick did not date any of his manuscripts.
There is also correspondence in the collection, including three boxes of business and financial correspondence, dating from 1967 until Merrick's death in 1988, then a folder of correspondence dated 1989-1990, dealing with the Merrick estate, as well as one folder of undated material. There is very little personal correspondence but what has been preserved includes nine letters and notes from E.M. Forster, dating from 1948 to 1954. There is also fan mail, dating from 1977 until the year after Merrick's death. The documents in the collection include photographs, awards, passports, and some medical and financial records. There are publicity photographs, as well as photographs from Merrick's personal collection, dating from 1959 to 1987. The diaries and calendars in the collection date from 1967 to 1988. The printed material in the collection is primarily clippings, but includes some of Merrick's published journalism as well as playbills from his stage career. The series "Papers of Other Persons" consists of a small amount of material relating to Merrick's life-long partner Charles Hulse.
Arrangement
Series: I. Writings: A. Novels, B. Short Stories, C. Scripts, D. Essays; II. Correspondence: A. Business and Financial, B. Personal, C. Fan Mail; III. Documents; IV. Diaries and Calendars; V. Memorabilia; VI. Printed Material; VII. Papers of Charles G. Hulse; VIII. Additional Papers.
Subject Headings / Form Headings
Gays in literature--20th century
Gays' writings, American--20th century
Novelists, American--20th century--Manuscripts
Novelists, American--20th century--Correspondence
Novelists, British--20th century--Correspondence
| I. Writings [Boxes 1-15] | |
| This series is remarkable for the multiplicity of drafts of the manuscripts of eighteen of Merrick's novels. However, several of the earlier novels are early drafts for some of the later ones, e.g., The Award for An Idol for Others, The Fluke for The Quirk, Reflections in the Mirror for The Lord Won't Mind, and Who'll Go Down in History for Forth into Light. Although the collection does not include a manuscript for Demon of Noon, it includes a published copy interleaved with additions which Merrick made to transform it into the novel Perfect Freedom. All of the manuscripts are in typescript, but some are heavily annotated and even interleaved with handwritten pages. Many of the typescripts are accompanied by corrected carbon copies. The earliest drafts seem to be those that have been typed single-spaced. For The Good Life, Merrick's last novel, there is also an outline a forward, and an addition of a complete typescript. There is one typescript of five chapters with no title. The typescripts usually have no chapter divisions. | |
| II. Correspondence [Boxes 16-19] | |
| The business and financial correspondence (1967-1990) includes contracts, royalty statements, and check stubs for royalty payments, as well as incoming letters from agents and editors. Although Merrick came from a wealthy family, he seems to have lived to a large extent on royalties, as his correspondence demonstrates. There is an interesting turn in the correspondence when one of his agents Bernard Geis goes bankrupt and Merrick has to sue for back payment of royalties. There are some letters by Merrick, attached to the replies they received, because they are mostly undated. The last dated folder in the series (1989-1990) contains correspondence relating to Merrick's estate. | |
| The personal correspondence is minimal but includes nine items from E. M. Forster, the British novelist, one of which deals at length with Merrick's earliest work, The Strumpet Wind. A Christmas card, undated, includes a picture of Forster in his study. There is also a note from composer Leonard Cohen who knew Merrick from having spent much time in the Greek islands. | |
| The fan mail was left in chronological order so that readers could see what type of responses Merrick's work was attracting between the years 1977 and his death in 1988. | |
| III. Documents [Box 19] | |
| This series includes medical and financial records, awards, passports and photographs. Merrick's novel An Idol for Others was awarded a Porgie Award for Best Contemporary Novel in 1977 by the West Coast Review of Books. The medical records date from the early 1980s and include receipts for prescriptions. Merrick lived abroad for most of his adult life but retained his American passport, many issues of which are preserved here. The photographs include several publicity shots for his novel The Hot Season (1958), as well as a collection of snapshots from his home in Greece which were used for publicity in the mid-1960s. The personal collection of photographs dates from 1959 to 1987 and shows Merrick at his homes in France, Greece, and Ceylon. | |
| IV. Diaries and Calendars [Boxes 19-20] | |
| Although there is an almost complete run of diaries and calendars from the 1960s until Merrick's death, they contain only brief entries. | |
| V. Memorabilia [Box 20] | |
| This series contains Gordon Merrick's wallet. | |
| VI. Printed Material [Boxes 20-21] | |
| Among the printed materials are included copies of The New Republic from the years 1958, 1959 and 1960 in which Merrick published articles, as well as three copies of the playbill of "The Man Who Came to Dinner," the Broadway play in which Merrick starred when he began his short-lived stage career in New York in the late 1930s. Merrick also left quite an extensive clipping file, including photocopies of reviews dating back to the 1930s. | |
| VII. Papers of Charles G. Hulse [Box 22] | |
| This series consists of Charles G. Hulse's papers, including correspondence with American agents and editors pertaining to an unpublished novel manuscript left by Merrick entitled The Good Life, but also to Hulse's own work. Like Merrick, Hulse was also a writer. There is also a photograph, possibly a publicity shot, of Hulse, who, like Merrick, may have started his career on the stage. A lengthy newspaper article describes Hulse's acquaintance with Merrick and their life together. | |
| VIII. Additional Papers [Box 23] | |
| An open series for the addition of papers by or relating to Gordon Merrick. Contains a complete typescript copy (576 pp.) of The Good Life, a novel by Gordon Merrick and Charles G. Hulse, to be published by Alyson Publication in December 1997. | |