James Ingram Merrill was born in New York City , to Charles E. Merrill ( 1885 &ndash; 1956 ) , the founding partner of the Merrill Lynch investment firm , and Hellen Ingram Merrill ( 1898 &ndash; 2000 ) , a society reporter and publisher from Jacksonville , Florida . He was born at a residence which would become the site of the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion , which Merrill would lament in the poem " 18 West 11th Street " ( 1972 )
Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
James Merrill