The papers of Merrill Moore (1903-1957) span the period 1904-1979, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the years 1928-1957. The collection consists primarily of correspondence and writings, supplemented by diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, printed matter, clippings, and miscellany. Documenting Moore's career as a psychiatrist and poet, the papers are organized into nine series: Diaries, Reminiscences, and Notebooks; Family Correspondence and Special File; General Correspondence; Subject File; Literary File; Scrapbooks (Oversize); Clippings; Miscellany; and Addition.

Moore made sporadic efforts to keep a diary, but his notes are extensive only for the period he spent in New Zealand during World War II. These notes are accompanied by memoranda and miscellaneous items that he collected in anticipation of writing a book based on his experiences. This material, which documents his service as a medical officer as well as his literary activities and plans, is most exhaustive for November 1942, when he sailed from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand, and for June 1943, when he made a brief visit to Guadalcanal.

Material concerning Moore's medical career, which spanned almost three decades, is contained in the General Correspondence and Subject File series. Graduating from Vanderbilt Medical School in 1928, Moore served his internship in Nashville and then entered an extensive period of training in neurology and psychiatry in the Boston area. During the course of his training, Moore came into contact with several leading neurologists and psychiatrists, including Alexandra Adler, Arlie V. Bock, Stanley Cobb, Winfred Overholser, Hanns Sachs, Harry C. Solomon, and Frederic Lyman Wells. All are represented by correspondence.

Moore also devoted much time to original research, particularly in areas directly related to mental illness and neurological disease. His extensive writings on the subjects of alcoholism, suicide, syphilis, drug addiction, and related topics are located in the Subject File. Four years of military service in the Pacific theater failed to dampen his productivity. His work in the areas of shell shock and alcoholism among military personnel, as well as his efforts to encourage and improve neurological services in military hospitals, is amply represented in both series.

Other subjects in the papers include Moore's efforts in 1938-1940 to aid Jewish doctors who were fleeing Nazi Germany. Moore's role as a consultant in 1940-1941 with companies making bromides, as well as controversies concerning the products' effectiveness, is also documented, especially in correspondence with Walter Compton (1912-1955) and George Ross Veazey in the Subject File series. The papers also contain substantial material relating to Moore's tour of duty in China in 1946 and correspondence in subsequent years with friends who remained in China or were deeply concerned about conditions there.

In the tradition of Oliver Wendell Holmes and William Carlos Williams, Moore coupled his medical career with an equally successful literary career. He derived much of his early interest in literature from his father, John Trotwood Moore, a poet, novelist, essayist, and historian. While still in high school, Moore developed his lifelong enthusiasm for the sonnet as a medium of expression. Soon after entering Vanderbilt University, he joined a group of fellow students and some of their teachers who were to form one of the most distinctive and cohesive literary groups of the twentieth century. Adopting the name Fugitives, the group made its contribution through the pages of The Fugitive (1922-1925), a magazine of verse. As a contributor to the magazine, Moore first revealed the propensity for experimentation and innovation that would mark his subsequent work and lead his biographer to characterize his poetry as “an essentially new and a highly significant experiment.” [1] At the same time, he cemented his commitment to sonnets.

[1] Henry Willis Wells, Poet and Psychiatrist: Merrill, M.D. (New York: Twayne [1955]), 2.

In the following years, Moore became something of a literary phenomenon by writing over fifty thousand sonnets, only a small portion of which were published. A large part of this production is represented in the Literary File. The series includes drafts, revisions, and fragments, as well as complete sonnets, and provides a broad base for a full analysis of his verse. The wide range of literary correspondence in the General Correspondence and Subject File series serves as a valuable supplement to the work itself. Moore corresponded with numerous literary figures, including Donald Davidson, Dudley Fitts, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, and Louis Untermeyer.

The Addition to the papers contains family and general correspondence and research material for a project Moore conducted at the Harvard Psychology Clinic. Included are outlines, drafts, and supplementary research, 1954-1975, for the publication of a book. Interviews were conducted with Moore by Christiana D. Morgan. Excerpts from these interviews are scattered throughout the Addition as well as earlier sessions conducted with Robert N. Wilson, and research notes of Ina Mae Greer. Also included is a typescript of the intended publication, designated second version: “Merrill Moore, M.D. The Creative Process in a Living Poet: A Study of the Genesis of Certain Forms of the Imagination.”