Daphne Merkin Archive The Readers: Daphne Merkin and All Our Regular Hells Author: Jeremiah Moriarty | Aug102017 Categories: Series No comments In her memoir This Close to Happy: A Reckoning with Depression, New York writer Daphne Merkin calls herself “a poor little rich girl” before anyone else can; raised by philanthropist parents on Park Avenue, her financial privileges are plain.