The Ingram Merrill Foundation was a private foundation established in the mid-1950s by poet James Merrill (1926-1995), using funds from his substantial family inheritance.[1] Over the course of four decades, the foundation would provide financial support to hundreds of writers and artists, many of them in the early stages of promising but not yet remunerative careers.[1] Dissolved in 1996 (a year after Merrill's death), the Ingram Merrill Foundation was at that point disbursing approximately $300,000 a year.[2]
Support from the Ingram Merrill Foundation could be variously described as an "Award", a "Fellowship", a "Prize", or a "Grant". Recipients themselves often used these terms interchangeably, and it is unclear whether there was ever a meaningful distinction between them reflecting the degree or amount of financial support (stipends could vary widely among Ingram Merrill recipients). By reapplying, it was possible to win an Award more than once in a career; at least one writer received three separate grants, and The Little Players puppet troupe was subsidized largely by the foundation for over twenty years.[3][4]
Although Merrill could lobby his own Board—not always with success—on behalf of writers and artists whose work and circumstances he felt particularly compelling, his interference in the grant-giving process was officially discouraged. This was by Merrill's own design: a measure of formal disengagement from his namesake foundation helped immunize him from "the friends of the friends" who might feel tempted to "put in a good word with Jimmy" on a pending application. In the event, Merrill could truthfully reply that decisions were out of his hands.
The Foundation supported specific public television programming in the early 1970s and gave occasional grants to arts organizations.
^ abJ. D. McClatchy. Braving the Elements, The New Yorker, 27 March 1995. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
^Swansburg, John. The View From/Stonington; If the Walls Could Talk, It Would Be Poetry, The New York Times, 28 January 2001. "[I]n the 1950s he established the Ingram Merrill Foundation, which until it ceased to exist in 1996, gave grants to writers, artists and other foundations. By the mid-90s, Merrill was donating around $300,000 a year through the foundation." Retrieved 27 May 2013.
^Berg, Paul. "Puppets For Adults," St. Louis Post-Dispatch 18 Apr. 1965.
^Hammer, Langdon. James Merrill: Life and Art. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015. 491.
and 25 Related for: Ingram Merrill Foundation information
The IngramMerrillFoundation was a private foundation established in the mid-1950s by poet James Merrill (1926-1995), using funds from his substantial...
James IngramMerrill (March 3, 1926 – February 6, 1995) was an American poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1977 for Divine Comedies...
Merrill Foundation, a private foundation operated during IngramMerrill's lifetime and subsidized literature, the arts, and public television Ingram MAC-10...
Gallery in England. MacDowell Colony Fellowships (1967 and 1974) IngramMerrillFoundation Fellowship (1967) Candace Award, Arts and Letters, National Coalition...
Fellowship 1989 — Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship 1985 — IngramMerrillFoundation Award (also 1990) Cole is openly gay, though in his early work...
Martone has won two Fellowships from the NEA and a grant from the IngramMerrillFoundation. His stories and essays have appeared and been cited in the Pushcart...
Poetry for Lifetime Achievement, 1961. Dante Medal, Italy, 1962. IngramMerrillFoundation Award in Literature, 1975. National Medal for Literature, "for...
of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the IngramMerrillFoundation. She now lives and teaches in the...
1996 Bread Loaf Writers' Conference Fellowship Ingram-MerrillFoundation Fellowship New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship Benvenuto, Christine (2002)...
Capital/Warhol Foundation, the Academy of American Poets (Lavan Award), The American Poetry Review (Jerome Shestack Award), the IngramMerrillFoundation, the National...
Sky Press, 2023). Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, IngramMerrillFoundation Grants, the O.B. Hardison Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library...
Foundation Fellowship, Fiction, 1976 American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, 1977 Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship IngramMerrill Foundation...
Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award 1971 IngramMerrillFoundation Grant 1962 Longview Foundation Purchase Award 1959–1960 Italian Government Study...
received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the IngramMerrillFoundation. Some of her poetry manuscripts now have a permanent home in the...
scholarly essay in PMLA for the year 1991. He has also received an IngramMerrillFoundation Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Rome...
fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the IngramMerrillFoundation, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry Magazine and the Modern Poetry...
Translation Award fellowship from the Witter Bynner Foundation fellowship from the IngramMerrillFoundation fellowship National Endowment for the Arts fellowship...
(1970).[citation needed] In 1962 with the aid of a grant from the IngramMerrillFoundation, Erdman began what was to become her best-known work, The Coach...
sources as the National Endowment for the Arts, the IngramMerrillFoundation, the Howard Foundation, and the state arts agencies of Connecticut, Delaware...
American poet James Merrill established the IngramMerrillFoundation in the 1950s. Merrill was a son of businessman Charles E. Merrill, who co-founded the...
Maria Hofmann Trust Award from the New York Foundation for the Arts and awards from the IngramMerrillFoundation. Kinsella, Eileen (2014-12-09). "Art Critic...
the University of Leeds in 1988, the same year he received an IngramMerrillFoundation Award. He was also an Honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford;...
Global Information