Merriam's first book was the 1946 Family Circle, which won the Yale Younger Poets Prize.
[3] It inspired a 1971 Broadway musical called Inner City, later revived in 1982 under the title Street Dreams.
[7] In 1977, composer Patsy Rogers used Merriam’s text for her opera Woman Alive: Conversation Against Death.
[9][10] Born Eva Moskovitz in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Eve Merriam was one of four children of Russian Jewish immigrants Max Moscovitz and Jennie Siegel.
She was married four times, with the first three ending in divorce: Erwin Spitzer (1939-1947), Martin Michel (1947-1960), and Leonard C. Lewin (1963-1980).