James Merrill
Merrill was born in 1926 in New York City. His family was very rich. His father, Charles Merrill, was an investment banker and co-founder of the Merrill Lynch brokerage firm. He started his higher schooling at Amherst College, where he first met the poet Robert Frost. He was in the U. S. Army from 1944 to 1945. He graduated from Amherst after World War II in 1947.