In 1973 Georgia O'Keeffe employed C. S. Merrill to catalog her library for her estate. Merrill, a poet who was a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, was twenty-six years old and O'Keeffe was eighty-five, almost blind, but still painting. Over seven years, Merrill was called upon for secretarial assistance, cooking, and personal care for the artist. Merrill's journals reveal details of the daily life of a genius. The author describes how O'Keeffe stretched the canvas for her twenty-six-foot cloud painting and reports on O'Keeffe's favorite classical music and preferred performers. Merrill provided descriptions of nature when she and the artist went for walks; she read to O'Keeffe from her favorite books and helped keep her space in meticulous order.
Throughout the book there are sketches of O'Keeffe's studio and an account of once assisting O'Keeffe at the easel. Jockeying for position among the helpers O'Keeffe relied upon was part of daily life at Abiquiu, where territorial chows guarded the property. Visitors came from far and wide, among them Eliot Porter and even Allen Ginsberg accompanied by Peter Orlovsky. All this is revealed in Merrill's straightforward and deeply respectful notes. Reading her book is like spending a weekend with O'Keeffe in the incomparable light and clear air of Northern New Mexico mountains and desert.

Weekends with O'Keeffe

Biographies & Memoirs

Merrill, C. S.

Arts & Literature

University of New Mexico Press

Winner of the 2012 Zia Award from New Mexico Press Women
In 1973 Georgia O'Keeffe employed C. S. Merrill to catalog her library for her estate. Merrill, a poet who was a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, was twenty-six years old and O'Keeffe was eighty-five, almost blind, but still painting. Over seven years, Merrill was called upon for secretarial assistance, cooking, and personal care for the artist. Merrill's journals reveal details of the daily life of a genius. The author describes how O'Keeffe stretched the canvas for her twenty-six-foot cloud painting and reports on O'Keeffe's favorite classical music and preferred performers. Merrill provided descriptions of nature when she and the artist went for walks; she read to O'Keeffe from her favorite books and helped keep her space in meticulous order.
Throughout the book there are sketches of O'Keeffe's studio and an account of once assisting O'Keeffe at the easel. Jockeying for position among the helpers O'Keeffe relied upon was part of daily life at Abiquiu, where territorial chows guarded the property. Visitors came from far and wide, among them Eliot Porter and even Allen Ginsberg accompanied by Peter Orlovsky. All this is revealed in Merrill's straightforward and deeply respectful notes. Reading her book is like spending a weekend with O'Keeffe in the incomparable light and clear air of Northern New Mexico mountains and desert.

Arts & Photography

Individual Artists

"Carol Merrill's tribute to Georgia O'Keeffe is poems in the shape of finely rendered sketches, some of them even paintings. These intimate images convey the delicate and tough shape of O'Keeffe's final years in New Mexico."--Joy Harjo, author of She Had Some Horses
"When I got O'Keeffe mss I sat down after midnite at kitchen table when I should've been in bed &amp; read it thru in an hour because it was interesting, curious, distinctive, focused, condensed, epiphanous, ordinary &amp; understandable. The details are all, sacramentalizing everyday life in a world of genius--a woman, vast space, chewy intelligence, almost selfless observation."--Allen Ginsberg, author of Howl

O'Keeffe: Days in a Life

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

"How to see her" is a question that runs through-out this suite of anecdotal poems about Georgia O'Keeffe. Carol Merrill, her cook, librarian, reader, nurse, and companion from 1973 to 1979, offers a unique portrait."These intimate images convey the delicate shape of O'Keeffe's final years in New Mexico."-- Joy Harjo"When I got O'Keeffe mss I sat down after mid- nite at kitchen table when I should've been in bed and read thru in an hour because it was interesting, curious, distinctive, focused, condensed, epiphanous, ordinary and understandable."--Allen Ginsberg

La Alameda Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Merrill, C. S.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Merrill, C. S.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Merrill, C. S.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Weekends with O'Keeffe

Weekends with O'Keeffe

O'Keeffe: Days in a Life

O'Keeffe: Days in a Life