Merton, Thomas (James) 1915-1968

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MERTON, Thomas (James) 1915-1968

PERSONAL: Born January 31, 1915, in Prades, Pyrennes-Orientales, France; brought to the United States, 1916; naturalized U.S. citizen, 1951; fatally electrocuted, December 10, 1968, in Bangkok, Thailand; son of Owen Heathcote (an artist) and Ruth (an artist; maiden name, Jenkins) Merton. Education: Attended Clare College, Cambridge, 1933-34; Columbia University, B.A., 1938, M.A., 1939.

CAREER: Instructor in English, Columbia University Extension Division, New York, NY, 1938-39, and St. Bonaventure University, Allegheny, NY, 1939-41; Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane, near Bardstown, KY, Roman Catholic monk of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists), 1941-68, ordained Roman Catholic priest as Father M. Louis, 1949, master of scholastics, 1951-55, monastic forester, beginning 1951, novice master, 1955-65, lived as a hermit on grounds of monastery, 1965-68. Artist; drawings exhibited in Louisville, KY; St. Louis, MO; New Orleans, LA; Milwaukee, WI; and Santa Barbara, CA, 1964-65.

MEMBER: Fellowship of Reconciliation.

AWARDS, HONORS: Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer Award, 1939; citation from Catholic Press Association of the United States, 1948, for Figures for an Apocalypse; Catholic Literary Award, Gallery of Living Catholic Authors, 1949, for The Seven Storey Mountain; Catholic Writers Guild Golden Book Award for best spiritual book by an American writer, 1951, for The Ascent to the Truth; Columbia University Medal for Excellence, 1961; LL.D., University of Kentucky, 1963; Pax Medal, 1963; Religious Book Award, Catholic Press Association, 1973, for The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton.

WRITINGS:

poetry

Thirty Poems (also see below), New Directions (New York, NY), 1944.

A Man in the Divided Sea (includes poems from Thirty Poems), New Directions (New York, NY), 1946.

Figures for an Apocalypse (also contains an essay), New Directions (New York, NY), 1948.

The Tears of Blind Lions, New Directions (New York, NY), 1949.

Selected Poems of Thomas Merton, Hollis Carter (London, England), 1950.

The Strange Islands: Poems (also see below), New Directions (New York, NY), 1957.

Selected Poems of Thomas Merton, New Directions (New York, NY), 1959, revised edition, 1967.

The Solitary Life, limited edition, Anvil Press (Lexington, KY), 1960.

Emblems of a Season of Fury (also contains prose and translations), New Directions (New York, NY), 1963.

Cables to the Ace; or, Familiar Liturgies of Misunderstanding, New Directions (New York, NY), 1968.

Landscape, Prophet, and Wild-Dog, [Syracuse, NY], 1968.

The Geography of Lograire, New Directions (New York, NY), 1969.

Early Poems: 1940-42, Anvil Press (Lexington, KY), 1972.

He Is Risen: Selections from Thomas Merton, Argus Communications (Niles, IL), 1975.

The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, New Directions (New York, NY), 1977.

essays

What Is Contemplation? (also see below), Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame (Holy Cross, IN), 1948, revised edition, Templegate (Springfield, IL), 1981, expanded version published as The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation, edited and with an introduction by William H. Shannon, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

Seeds of Contemplation, New Directions (New York, NY), 1949, revised and expanded edition published as New Seeds of Contemplation, New Directions (New York, NY), 1962, reprinted, Shambala (Boston, MA), 2003.

The Ascent to the Truth, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1951.

Bread in the Wilderness, New Directions (New York, NY), 1953.

No Man Is an Island, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1955.

The Living Bread, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1956.

Praying the Psalms, Liturgical Press (Collegeville, MN), 1956, published as The Psalms Are Our Prayer, Burns & Oates (London, England), 1957, published as Thomas Merton on the Psalms, Sheldon Press (London, England), 1970.

The Silent Life, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1957.

Thoughts in Solitude, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1958.

The Christmas Sermons of Bl. Guerric of Igny (essay), Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane (Bardstown, KY), 1959.

Spiritual Direction and Meditation (also see below), Liturgical Press (Collegeville, MN), 1960.

Disputed Questions (also see below), Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1960.

The Behavior of Titans, New Directions (New York, NY), 1961.

The New Man, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1962.

Life and Holiness, Herder & Herder (New York, NY), 1963.

Seeds of Destruction (also includes several letters), Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1964, abridged edition published as Redeeming the Time, Burns & Oates (London, England), 1966.

Seasons of Celebration, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1965, published as Meditations on Liturgy, Mowbrays (London, England), 1976.

Mystics and Zen Masters (includes "The Ox Mountain Parable of Meng Tzu"; also see below), Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1967.

Zen and the Birds of Appetite, New Directions (New York, NY), 1968.

Faith and Violence: Christian Teaching and Christian Practice, University of Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 1968.

The Climate of Monastic Prayer, Cistercian Publications (Kalamazoo, MI), 1969, published as Contemplative Prayer, Herder & Herder (New York, NY), 1969.

True Solitude: Selections from the Writings of Thomas Merton, Hallmark Editions (Kansas City, MO), 1969.

Three Essays, Unicorn Press (Greensboro, NC), 1969.

Opening the Bible, Liturgical Press (Collegeville, MN), 1970, revised edition, Liturgical Press (Collegeville, MN), 1983.

Contemplation in a World of Action, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1971, revised edition, University of Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 1998.

The Zen Revival, Buddhist Society (London, England), 1971.

Thomas Merton on Peace, McCall (New York, NY), 1971, revised edition published as The Nonviolent Alternative, edited and with an introduction by Gordon C. Zahn, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1980.

Spiritual Direction and Meditation; and, What Is Contemplation?, A. Clarke (Westhampstead, England), 1975.

Thomas Merton on Zen, Sheldon Press (London, England), 1976.

The Power and Meaning of Love (includes six essays originally published in Disputed Questions), Sheldon Press (London, England), 1976.

Ishi Means Man: Essays on Native Americans, foreword by Dorothy Day, Unicorn Press (Greensboro, NC), 1976.

The Monastic Journey, edited by Patrick Hart, Sheed, Andrews & McMeel (Mission, KS), 1977.

Love and Living, edited by Naomi Burton Stone and Patrick Hart, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1979.

Thomas Merton on St. Bernard, Cistercian Publications (Kalamazoo, MI), 1980.

The Literary Essays of Thomas Merton, edited by Patrick Hart, New Directions (New York, NY), 1981.

Passion for Peace: The Social Essays, edited by William Henry Shannon, Crossroad Publishing (New York, NY), 1995.

(With Eberhard Arnold) Why We Live in Community, Plough (New York, NY), 1995.

The Springs of Contemplation: A Retreat at the Abbey Gethsemane, Ave Maria (Notre Dame, IN), 1997.

Mornings with Thomas Merton: Readings and Reflections, selected by John C. Blattner, Charis Books (Ann Arbor, MI), 1998.

Essential Writings, edited by Christine Bochen, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NY), 2000.

Peace in the Post-Christian Era, edited by Patricia A. Burton, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NJ), 2004.

autobiographies

The Seven Storey Mountain, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1948, abridged edition published as Elected Silence: The Autobiography of Thomas Merton, with an introduction by Evelyn Waugh, Hollis Carter (London, England), 1949, fiftieth anniversary edition, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1999.

The Sign of Jonas (journal), Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1953.

The Secular Journal of Thomas Merton, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1959.

Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (journal), Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1966, 2nd edition, Sheldon Press (London, England), 1977.

The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton, edited by Naomi Burton Stone, Patrick Hart, and James Laughlin, New Directions (New York, NY), 1973.

Woods, Shore, Desert: A Notebook, May, 1968, with photographs by Merton, Museum of New Mexico Press (Santa Fe, NM), 1982.

A Vow of Conversation: Journals, 1964-65, edited by Naomi Burton Stone, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1988.

Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 1: Run to the Mountain, Volume 2: Entering the Silence, Volume 3: A Search for Solitude, Volume 4: Turning toward the World: The Pivotal Years, Volume 5: Dancing in the Water of Life: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage, Volume 6: Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom, edited by Christine Bochen, Volume 7: The Other Side of the Mountain: The End of the Journey, 1967-1968, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1995-1998.

biographies

Exile Ends in Glory: The Life of a Trappistine, Mother M. Berchmans, O.C.S.O., Bruce (Milwaukee, WI), 1948.

What Are These Wounds?: The Life of a Cistercian Mystic, Saint Lutgarde of Aywieres, Clonmore Reynolds (Dublin, Ireland), 1949, Bruce (Milwaukee, WI), 1950.

The Last of the Fathers: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and the Encyclical Letter "Doctor Mellifluus," Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1954.

letters

Six Letters: Boris Pasternak, Thomas Merton, edited by Naomi Burton Stone, King Library Press, University of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1973.

(With Robert Lax) A Catch of Anti-Letters, Sheed, Andrews & McMeel (Mission, KS), 1978.

Letters from Tom: A Selection of Letters from Father Thomas Merton, Monk of Gethsemane, to W. H. Ferry, 1961-1968, edited by W. H. Ferry, Fort Hill Press (Scarsdale, NY), 1983.

The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Experience and Social Concerns, selected and edited by William Henry Shannon, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1985.

The Road to Joy: The Letters of Thomas Merton to New and Old Friends, edited by Robert E. Daggy, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1989.

The School of Charity: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Renewal and Spiritual Direction, edited by Patrick Hart, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1990.

The Courage for Truth: The Letters of Thomas Merton to Writers, edited by Christine M. Bochen, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1993.

Witness to Freedom: The Letters of Thomas Merton in Times of Crisis, edited by William Henry Shannon, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1994.

At Home in the World: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Rosemary Radford Ruether, edited by Mary Tardiff, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NY), 1995.

Striving towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz, edited by Robert Faggen, (New York, NY), 1997.

Thomas Merton and James Laughlin: Selected Letters, W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1997.

When Prophecy Still Had a Voice: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Robert Lax, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 2001.

Survival or Prophecy?: Letters of Thomas Merton and Jean Leclercq, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 2002.

lyrics

Four Freedom Songs, G.I.A. Publications (Chicago, IL), 1968.

The Niles-Merton Songs: Opus 171 and 172, music by John Jacob Miles, Mark Foster Music (Champaign, IL), 1981.

For My Brother, Reported Missing in Action, 1943, music by Frank Ferko, E. C. Schirmer (Boston, MA), 2000.

editor

What Ought I Do?: Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Stamperia del Santuccio (Lexington, KY), 1959, revised and expanded edition published as The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers of the Fourth Century, New Directions (New York, NY), 1961.

The Ox Mountain Parable of Meng Tzu, Stamperia del Santuccio (Lexington, KY), 1960.

(And contributor and author of introduction) Breakthrough to Peace: Twelve Views on the Threat of Thermonuclear Extermination, New Directions (New York, NY), 1962.

(And author of introduction) Mohandas Gandhi, Gandhi on Non-Violence: Selected Texts from Gandhi's "Non-Violence in Peace and War," New Directions (New York, NY), 1965.

(And author of introductory essays) The Way of Chuang Tzu, New Directions (New York, NY), 1965, reprinted, Shambhala (Boston, MA), 2004.

(And author of introduction and commentary) Albert Camus, The Plague, Seabury (New York, NY), 1968.

translator

(From the French) Jean-Baptiste Chautard, The Soul of the Apostolate, Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane (Trappist, KY), 1946, new edition with introduction by Thomas Merton, Image Books (New York, NY), 1961.

(From the French) Saint John Eudes, The Life and the Kingdom of Jesus in Christian Souls for the Use by Clergy or Laity, P. J. Kennedy Sons (New York, NY), 1946.

(And author of commentary) The Spirit of Simplicity Characteristic of the Cistercian Order: An Official Report, Demanded and Approved by the General Chapter together with Texts from St. Bernard Clairvaux on Interior Simplicity, Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane (Trappist, KY), 1948.

(And author of preface) Cassiodorus, A Prayer from the Treatise "De anima," Stanbrook Abbey Press (Worcester, England), 1956.

(And author of explanatory essay) Clement of Alexandria, Selections from the Protreptikos, New Directions (New York, NY), 1963.

(From the Latin; and author of introduction) Guigo I, The Solitary Life: A Letter from Guigo, Stanbrook Abbey Press (Worcester, England), 1963, published as On the Solitary Life, Banyan Press (Pawlet, VT), 1977.

(From the Spanish; with others) Nicanor Parra, Poems and Antipoems, edited by Miller Williams, New Directions (New York, NY), 1967.

Pablo Antonio Cuadra, El Jaguar y la luna/The Jaguar and the Moon (bilingual edition), Unicorn Press (Greensboro, NC), 1974.

other

(Illustrator) Cistercian Contemplatives: Monks of the Strict Observance at Our Lady of Gethsemane, Kentucky, Our Lady of the Holy Ghost, Georgia, Our Lady of the Holy Trinity, Utah—A Guide to the Trappist Life, Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane (Trappist, KY), 1948.

Gethsemane Magnificat: Centenary of Gethsemane Abbey, Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane (Trappist, KY), 1949.

The Waters of Siloe (history), Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1949, reprinted, 1979, revised edition published as The Waters of Silence, Hollis & Carter (London, England), 1950, deluxe limited edition, Theodore Brun Limited (London, England), 1950.

Silence in Heaven: A Book of the Monastic Life, Studio Publications/Crowell (New York, NY), 1956.

The Tower of Babel (play), [Hamburg], 1957, New Directions (New York, NY), 1958.

Monastic Peace, Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane (Trappist, KY), 1958.

Hagia Sophia (prose poems), Stamperia del Santuccio (Lexington, KY), 1962.

A Thomas Merton Reader, edited by Thomas P. McDonnell, Harcourt (San Diego, CA), 1962, revised and enlarged edition, Image Books (New York, NY), 1974.

Original Child Bomb: Points for Meditation to Be Scratched on the Walls of a Cave (prose poem), New Directions (New York, NY), 1962.

Come to the Mountain: New Ways and Living Traditions in the Monastic Life, Saint Benedict's Cistercian Monastery (Snowmass, CO), 1964.

The Poorer Means: A Meditation on Ways to Unity, Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane (Trappist, KY), 1965.

Gethsemane: A Life of Praise, Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane (Trappist, KY), 1966.

(Author of introductory essay) George A. Panichas, editor, Mansions of the Spirit: Essays in Religion and Literature, Hawthorn (New York, NY), 1967.

Christ in the Desert, Monastery of Christ in the Desert (Abiquiu, NM), 1968.

My Argument with the Gestapo: A Macaronic Journal, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1969.

A Hidden Wholeness: The Visual World of Thomas Merton, edited by John Howard Griffin, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1970.

Cistercian Life, Cistercian Book Service (Spenser, MA), 1974.

(Author of introduction) John Wu, The Golden Age of Zen, 1975.

(Author of introduction) Counsels of Light and Love, Paulist Press (New York, NY), 1977.

Geography of Holiness: The Photography of Thomas Merton, edited by Deba Prasad Patnaik, Pilgrim Press (New York, NY), 1980.

Introductions East and West: The Foreign Prefaces of Thomas Merton, edited by Robert E. Daggy, Unicorn Press (Greensboro, NC), 1981, revised edition published as Honorable Reader: Reflections on My Work, Crossroad Publishing (New York, NY), 1989.

Blaze of Recognition: Through the Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations, selected and edited by McDonnell, with illustrations by Thomas Merton, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1983, published as Through the Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Writings, Image Books (New York, NY), 1985.

Monks Pond: Thomas Merton's Little Magazine (collected issues), edited by Robert E. Daggy, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1989.

Thomas Merton: Preview of the Asian Journey, edited by Walter H. Capps, Crossroad Publishing (New York, NY), 1989.

Thomas Merton in Alaska: Prelude to the Asian Journal: The Alaskan Conferences, Journals, and Letters, New Directions (New York, NY), 1989.

Thomas Merton's Rewritings: The Five Versions of "Seeds/New Seeds of Contemplation" As a Key to the Development of His Thought, edited by Donald Grayson, Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston, NY), 1989.

The Springs of Contemplation: A Retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemane, edited by Jane Marie Richardson, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1992.

Thomas Merton, Spiritual Master: The Essential Writings, edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham, Paulist Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Ways of the Christian Mystics, Shambhala (Boston, MA), 1994.

Run to the Mountain: The Story of a Vocation, edited by Patrick Hart, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1995.

Thoughts on the East, New Directions (New York, NY), 1995.

Dialogues with Silence: Prayers and Drawings, edited by Jonathan Montaldo, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2001.

Seeds, edited with an introduction by Robert Inchausti, Shambhala (Boston, MA), 2002.

When the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature, edited by Kathleen Deignan, illustrated by John Giuliani, Sorin Books (Notre Dame, IN), 2003.

Seeking Paradise: The Spirit of the Shakers, edited and with an introduction by Paul M. Pearson, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NJ), 2003.

(Author of introduction) Alfred Delp, S.J., Prison Writings, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NY), 2004.

Also author of numerous shorter works and pamphlets, including A Balanced Life of Prayer, 1951, Basic Principles of Monastic Spirituality, 1957, Prometheus: A Meditation, 1958, Nativity Kerygma, 1958, Monastic Vocation and the Background of Modern Secular Thought, 1964, and Notes on the Future of Monasticism, 1968. Contributor to books, including New Anthology of Modern Poetry, edited by Selden Rodman, revised edition, Modern Library (New York, NY), 1946; The Happy Crusaders, compiled by James E. Tobin, McMullen (New York, NY), 1952; and J. F. Powers, compiled by Fallon Evans, Herder & Herder (New York, NY), 1968. Contributor of book reviews, articles, and poetry to New York Herald Tribune, New York Times Book Review, Commonweal, Catholic World, and Catholic Worker. Editor, Monks Pond (quarterly), 1968. The largest collection of Merton's manuscripts is held at the Thomas Merton Studies Center, Bellarmine College, Louisville, KY.

ADAPTATIONS: The Tower of Babel, condensed and adapted by Richard J. Walsh, was televised by National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC-TV), 1957.

SIDELIGHTS: A monk who lived in isolation for several years, and one of the most well-known Catholic writers of the twentieth century, Thomas Merton was a prolific poet, religious writer, and essayist whose diversity of work has rendered a precise definition of his life and an estimation of the significance of his career difficult. Merton was a Trappist, a member of a Roman Catholic brotherhood known for its austere lifestyle and vow of silence in which all conversation is forbidden. Merton's accomplishments as an author are even more remarkable considering that when he entered the Trappist monastery in Kentucky in 1941, monks were allowed to write only two half-page letters four times a year and nothing more. In The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton, biographer Michael Mott called Merton a "poet, writer, activist, contemplative, … reformer of monastic life, artist, [and] bridge between Western and Eastern religious thought." Indeed, Merton is credited with introducing the mysticism of Eastern spirituality to Western Christians.

The Seven Storey Mountain, an autobiography Merton published in 1948 when he was only thirty-three years old, is probably the book for which he is best remembered. It was an instant success, and even before its publication caused considerable excitement for its publisher. Looking for recommendations to print on the book's jacket, Robert Giroux, Merton's editor, sent galley proofs to Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, and Clare Boothe Luce for their opinions. According to Mott, Waugh responded that The Seven Storey Mountain "may well prove to be of permanent interest in the history of religious experience." Greene wrote that the autobiography has "a pattern and meaning valid for all of us." And Clare Boothe Luce declared, "It is to a book like this that men will turn a hundred years from now to find out what went on in the heart of men in this cruel century." These enthusiastic replies led publisher Harcourt, Brace to increase the first printing order from five thousand to twenty thousand copies and to order a second printing before publication.

Reviewers' praise of The Seven Storey Mountain confirmed Harcourt's suspicions that the book would be well received and talked about. In Catholic World, F. X. Connolly noted that Merton's autobiography "is bracing in its realism, sincere, direct and challenging…. The Seven Storey Mountain is a prolonged prayer as well as a great book." Commenting in the New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review, George Shuster wrote: "The fervor of [Merton's] progress to the monastery of Gethsemane is deeply moving. It is a difficult matter to write about, but I think there will be many who, however alien the experience may remain to them personally, will put the narrative down with wonder and respect." George Miles observed in a Commonweal review that "the book is written simply; the sensory images of boyhood are wonderful, and the incisive quality of his criticism, that tartness of his humor have not been sentimentalized by Merton's entry into a monastery…. The Seven Storey Mountain is a book that deeply impresses the mind and the heart for days. It fills one with love and hope."

Reviewers and readers were moved by the intriguing story of Merton's undisciplined youth, conversion to Catholicism, and subsequent entry into the Trappist monastery. "With publication of his autobiography," noted Kenneth L. Woodward in Newsweek, "Merton became a cult figure among pious Catholics." According to Edward Rice in his biography The Man in the Sycamore Tree: The Good Times and Hard Life of Thomas Merton: An Entertainment, the book "was forceful enough to cause a quiet revolution among American Catholics, and then among people of many beliefs throughout the world." A Time writer reported that "under its spell disillusioned veterans, students, even teenagers flocked to monasteries across the country either to stay or visit as retreatants." As Richard Kostelanetz observed in the New York Times Book Review, Merton's "example made credible an extreme religious option that would strike many as unthinkable."

Rice theorized that the success of The Seven Storey Mountain was not only due to interest in Merton's story but also to the way events in his life reflected the feelings of a society recovering from the shock of world war. Explained Rice: What sets The Seven Storey Mountain apart from other books like it was "its great evocation of a young man in an age when the soul of mankind had been laid open as never before during world depression and unrest and the rise of both Communism and Fascism…. It became a symbol and a guide to the plight of the contemporary world, touching Catholics and non-Catholics alike in their deep, alienated unconsciousness."

The popularity of Merton's book resulted in profits, and the money Merton earned was used at the Abbey of Gethsemane for much-needed improvements and expansion. As Rice noted, however, it also "catapulted Merton into the eyes of the world," making a celebrity of a man who wanted to live in solitude. Without the publication of this autobiography, Mott wrote, it is possible "that Thomas Merton might have achieved … obscurity and oblivion." But that was not to be; for the rest of his life Merton was to deal with the consequences of having written such a popular book.

In the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Victor A. Kramer commented on the contradictory aspects of Merton's life and work, observing that "Merton's dual career as a cloistered monk and prolific writer, a career of silence yet one which allowed him to speak to thousands of readers world wide, was a paradox." The significance of this contrasting need in Merton for both silence and fellowship with the people outside the monastery walls "was a source of anxiety to Merton himself," explained Ross Labrie in the Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook: 1981. But according to Labrie, "It is one of the strongest centers of excitement in approaching his work as well as being one of the clearest ways to see his role in twentieth-century letters." James Thomas Baker agreed that the dichotomy of monk/writer in Merton's personality is an essential ingredient in his writing. As Baker stated in his Thomas Merton: Social Critic, "There was … an oriental paradox about his life and thought, the paradox of a monk speaking to the world, which gave it the quality that was uniquely Merton, and any other career would have robbed his work of that quality."

Due to the abundant autobiographical material Merton produced—at his death, he left 800,000 words of unpublished writings, mainly journals and letters, as well as hundreds of taped talks—a great deal is known about how he dealt with the anxiety produced by his paradoxical desire to be both a contemplative and a social activist. Mott's research revealed that by 1940 Merton was actually keeping two sets of journals, private journals handwritten in bound notebooks and the edited, typewritten journals he showed to others. In the late 1990s many of these journals were edited, resulting in the seven-volume Journals of Thomas Merton. Volume six, Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom caused a small stir when journal entries revealed what Merton labeled an "affair" with a young nurse in 1966. The woman, identified only as "M," was the object of Merton's deep passion: "I have never seen so much simple, spontaneous, total love," he wrote, although stopping short of describing their relationship in sexual terms. As the book's editor, Christine Bochen, suggested in a Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service article, "This journal needs to read as a chapter in Merton's story, but not a dominant one."

Merton's love of writing started early in his life, as Israel Shenker noted in the New York Times. "He wrote his first book at the age of ten," wrote Shenker, "and followed it with ten more unpublished novels." (One of these early novels was published posthumously as My Argument with the Gestapo: A Macaronic Journal.) By 1939, while teaching university extension classes at night, Merton's writing occupied most of his days. That same year, according to Mott, Merton also "wrote the first poem that would continue to mean something to him." Although Merton had already written quite a few poems, he explained in The Seven Storey Mountain, "I had never been able to write verse before I became a Catholic [in 1938]. I had tried, but I had never really succeeded, and it was impossible to keep alive enough ambition to go on trying."

Merton became well known as a poet during his first years in the monastery. His first book of poetry, 1944's Thirty Poems, includes poems composed before and after entering the abbey. According to Baker, Merton believed "the poetry which he wrote at that time was the best of his career." The book received favorable reviews, Robert Lowell writing in Commonweal that Merton is "easily the most promising of our American Catholic poets."

Merton's next book of poetry included all the selections from his first book plus fifty-six more written during the same period. This book, A Man in the Divided Sea, was equally praised by critics. Calling it "brilliant" and "provocative," Poetry critic John Nerber commented, "It is, without doubt, one of the important books of the year." In the New Yorker Louise Bogan wrote that although Merton "has not yet developed a real synthesis between his poetic gifts and his religious ones … the possibility of his becoming a religious poet of stature is evident."

Despite the stature of his religious writings and essays, the literary value of Merton's poetry has always been questioned. Writing in Commonweal, William Henry Shannon argued that Merton's poetry, consisting of "over a thousand pages," contained "a fair amount of … mediocre or just plain bad" writing, "but one will also find fine poetry there." Addressing the religious content of Merton's work, Therese Lentfoehr, writing in her Words and Silence: On the Poetry of Thomas Merton, explained that "only about a third of the poems might be viewed as having specific religious themes." Many of the other poems were accessible to a larger audience because Merton enjoyed writing about children, the natural world, and the larger world outside the monastery. In the 1960s he also wrote poems about social issues of the day.

After his poetry writing in the 1940s, Merton ceased writing poems in such quantities again until the 1960s. With his appointment in 1951 as master of scholastics, many of his works—such as The Living Bread, No Man Is an Island, and The Silent Life—expanded on ideas expressed in the monastery classes he conducted for the young monks studying for the priesthood.

Several critics, including Kramer and Baker, noted a change in Merton's writing sometime between the end of the 1950s and the early 1960s. Whereas Merton previously appeared to advocate isolation from society as the answer to the question of how a Christian should respond to the unspirituality of the world, his writing began to suggest the need to deal with social injustice through social activism. Baker explained, "By the mid-1960s [Merton's] attitude toward the world had changed so dramatically that Merton-watchers were speaking of the 'early Merton' and the 'later Merton' to distinguish between his two careers, the one as a silent mystic who celebrated the virtues of monastic life in glowing prose and poetry, the other as a social commentator."

Kramer cited three books in particular that demonstrate "the significant changes in awareness" in Merton's writing. The first of these books, 1949's Seeds of Contemplation, is entirely spiritual in focus. New Seeds of Contemplation, published in 1961 as a revised version of the same book, reflects what Kramer called Merton's "greater concern for the problems of living in the world." The third book, 1964's Seeds of Destruction, is a collection of essays on world problems, including racism. According to Kramer, the changing themes illustrated in these three books reflect Merton's movement from solitary monk in a monastery cell to social activist. While unable to join the sit-ins and protest marches of the 1960s, Merton was able to express his support for such activities with his writing.

Mott explained the change in Merton's style by noting that at the end of the 1950s, "after sixteen years of isolation from social issues, Merton was beginning to feel cut off from what he needed to know." Since radios, televisions, and newspapers were forbidden in the monastery, only chance readings of magazines and books brought to the abbey by Merton's friends enabled him to keep up with world events. Belatedly, he learned about the suffering caused by the U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Japan and the horrors of Nazi concentration camps. He learned of social injustice in Latin America by reading Latin-American poets, including Nicaraguan Ernesto Cardenal, who spent some time at the Abbey of Gethsemane himself in the late 1950s. As Mott explained, Merton "was unsure of himself, certain only that the time had come to move from the role of bystander … to that of declared witness." The works Original Child Bomb: Points for Meditation to Be Scratched on the Walls of a Cave and "Chants to be Used in Processions around a Site with Furnaces" are products of his awakening social conscience.

Merton's increasing concern with racial injustice, the immorality of war—particularly of the Vietnam conflict—and the plight of the world's poor caused increasing conflict with the monastic censors at Gethsemane. When originally confronted with the manuscript version of The Seven Storey Mountain, for instance, the censors rejected it because of the numerous references to sex and drinking it contained. Although the debate over The Seven Storey Mountain was eventually resolved, monastic censors once again grew concerned about Merton's writings on war and peace. Frustrated, Merton circulated some of his work in mimeographed form that came to be known as the "Cold War Letters." In 1962, Merton was forbidden by his superiors to write about war, but was allowed to write about peace.

Despite censorship and isolation, Merton became, according to Kenneth L. Woodward in Newsweek, "a prophet to the peace movement [and] a conscience to the counterculture." At the height of the Vietnam War, he welcomed a Vietnamese Buddhist monk to speak at the abbey, met with peace activist Joan Baez, corresponded with Catholic priest Daniel Berrigan, and planned a retreat for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that was halted by King's assassination. Controversial comedian Lenny Bruce often closed his nightclub act by reading from an essay Merton wrote about German Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann in which Merton questions the sanity of the world.

Much of Merton's increased public profile was observed after he began living as a hermit in a cabin located in the woods on the monastery grounds. Just as his desire to be removed from the world became greatest, so did his need to speak out on social problems. In his writings, he attempted to explain this paradox as much to himself as to others.

In Best Sellers, Sister Joseph Marie Anderson wrote that in Merton's Contemplation in a World of Action, the monk stresses "that the contemplative is not exempt from the problem of the world nor is the monastic life an escape from reality." In a review of Merton's The Climate of Monastic Prayer, a Times Literary Supplement critic noted, "Merton came to see that the monk is not exempt from the agonies of the world outside his walls: he is involved at another level." The reviewer offered this quote from Merton's book: "The monk searches not only his own heart: he plunges deep into the heart of that world of which he remains a part although he seems to have 'left' it. In reality the monk abandons the world only in order to listen more intently to the deepest and most neglected voices that proceed from the inner depth." According to Lawrence S. Cunningham, writing in Commonweal, Merton saw the contemplative as someone who "should be able to communicate … from the deep center or ground which is God."

Along with social activism, Merton became increasingly interested in the study of other religions, particularly Zen Buddhism. His books Mystics and Zen Masters and Zen and the Birds of Appetite reflect his love for Eastern thought. In the New York Times Book Review, Nancy Wilson Ross wrote, "In Mystics and Zen Masters [the author] has made a vital, sensitive and timely contribution to the growing worldwide effort … to shed new light on mankind's common spiritual heritage." She added: "Merton's reasons for writing this [book] … might be summed up in a single quotation: 'If the West continues to underestimate and to neglect the spiritual heritage of the East, it may well hasten the tragedy that threatens man and his civilization.'" In the New York Times Book Review, Edward Rice explained further that "Merton's first notion was to pluck whatever 'Christian' gems he could out of the East that might fit into the Catholic theological structure. Later he abandoned this attempt and accepted Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam on their own equally valid terms … without compromising his own Christianity."

Merton died in 1968, while attending an ecumenical conference in Bangkok, Thailand, his first extended journey outside the monastery walls since his entry in 1941. Ironically, his death came twenty-seven years to the day from when he first became a member of the Gethsemane community, and was the result of an electrical shock from a faulty fan.

Merton's writings on peace, war, social injustice, and Eastern thought created controversy both inside and outside the abbey. As J. M. Cameron remarked in the New York Review of Books, "Merton will be remembered for two things: his place … in the thinking about the morality of war…; and his partially successful attempt to bring out, through study and personal encounter, what is common to Asian and West monasticism and … contemplative life." Rice agreed with this observation, noting in The Man in the Sycamore Tree, "It [was] the later writings on war and peace, nonviolence, race, … and above all on Buddhism, that show Merton at his best and most creative."

A man of great personal charisma, Merton symbolized, for many Catholics, the search for meaning in life in the aftermath of a cataclysmic war, the shock waves of which had shattered many cultural and social traditions and uprooted long-held values. Decades after his death, his works and life found additional relevance among a new generation of Catholics and non-Catholics, and his writings on war and peace from the 1960s were echoed in the U.S. Catholic bishops' statement on nuclear war published in the 1980s. The trajectory of his life, reveals, Monica Furlong maintained in her Merton: A Biography, "much about the twentieth century and, in particular, the role of religion in it."

Merton "has been prolific even in death," according to U.S. Catholic reporter Jim Forest, citing the many publications containing his essays, prayers, letters, and articles that continue to be published more than three decades after his tragic death. The fiftieth-anniversary edition of The Seven Storey Mountain was published in 1999. Other works released posthumously include Dialogues with Silence: Prayers and Drawings, which Library Journal's Graham Christian applauded as casting "new and thought-provoking light on his finely written prayers," and The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation, a revision of Merton's 1948 book What Is Contemplation? In Library Journal Stephen Joseph praised The Inner Experience as an argument to make "contemplation … central to all aspects of life rather than just one more compartment." While noting the "rough" quality of the book due to its being still unfinished at Merton's death, a Publishers Weekly reviewer nonetheless cited The Inner Experience for providing "vivid examples of Merton's ability to make monastic disciplines intelligible and plausible even to secular readers."

Merton as Something of a Rebel is implied in the title of a biography of the spiritualist by William Shannon. Shannon's subject "was a unique monk," he stated. "One would have to go all the way back to the [twelfth] century—to St. Bernard—to find a monk whose writings were as influential as Merton's have been." But Merton "belonged to his own age," Shannon wrote. "He wrote in his own time in history, yet so much of what he wrote seemed to reach beyond the culture of his own time. He was supracultural, yet not ahistorical. By that I mean he was alive to the historical circumstances in which he lived, yet not so hemmed in by cultural restraints that he could not break through them."

The Thomas Merton Studies Center at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky, contains over 10,000 items related to Merton and some 3,000 of his manuscripts. The Merton Legacy Trust, devoted to gathering all future Merton scholarship, is also located at Bellarmine. The International Thomas Merton Society was founded in 1987 and reports a membership of over fifteen thousand.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

books

Baker, James Thomas, Thomas Merton, social critic; a study, University Press of Kentucky (Lexington, KY), 1971.

Cunningham, Lawrence, Thomas Merton and the Monastic Vision, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), 1999.

Dictionary of Literary Biography, Gale (Detroit, MI), Volume 48, 1986, Yearbook: 1981, 1982.

Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd edition, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

Forest, Jim, Living with Wisdom: A Life of Thomas Merton, Orbis Books (Maryknoll, NY), 1991.

Furlong, Monica, Merton : a biography, Liguori Publications (Liguori, MO), 1995.

Grayston, Donald, Thomas Merton: The Development of a Spiritual Theologian, E. Mellen (New York, NY), 1985.

Higgins, Michael W., Heretic Blood: The Spiritual Geography of Thomas Merton, Stoddart (New York, NY), 1998.

Inchausti, Robert, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 1998.

The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals, edited by Patrick Hart and Jonathan Montaldo, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1999.

Kountz, Peter, Thomas Merton As Writer and Monk: A Cultural Study, 1915-1951, Carlson (Brooklyn, NY), 1991.

Lentfoehr, Therese, Words and silence : on the poetry of Thomas Merton, New Directions Pub. Corp. (New York, NY), 1979.

McInerny, Dennis Q., Thomas Merton: The Man and His Works, Cistercian Publications (Kalamazoo, MI), 1974.

Modern American Literature, 5th edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Mott, Michael, The seven mountains of Thomas Merton, Harcourt Brace (San Diego, CA), 1993.

Nouwen, Henri J. M., Thomas Merton, Contemplative Critic, Triumph (New York, NY), 1991.

Pennington, M. Basil, Thomas Merton, Brother Monk: The Quest for True Freedom, Continuum (New York, NY), 1997.

Religious Leaders of America, 2nd edition, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1999.

Rice, Edward, The Man in the Sycamore Tree: The Good Times and Hard Life of Thomas Merton: An Entertainment, Doubleday (Garden City, NY), 1970.

Shannon, William Henry, "Something of a Rebel": Thomas Merton, His Life and Works: An Introduction, St. Anthony Messenger Press (Cincinnati, OH), 1997.

Woodcock, George, Thomas Merton, Monk and Poet: A Critical Study, Douglas & McIntyre (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada), 1978.

periodicals

AB Bookman's Weekly, November 16, 1992, pp. 1832-1846.

America, October 25, 1969; November 24, 1984; October 22, 1988, pp. 277, 280, 288, 290; November 12, 1988, p. 387; October 21, 1989, p. 267; November 18, 1989, p. 358; February 3, 1990, p. 76; October 6, 1990, p. 218; October 27, 1990, p. 309; January 1, 1994, p. 6; February 11, 1995, p. 26; November 4, 1995, p. 33; April 13, 1996, p. 28; February 1, 1997, Robert Coles, "Secular Days, Sacred Moments," p. 6; February 15, 1997, Emilie Griffin, "Turning toward Lent: The Journals of Thomas Merton," p. 30; November 22, 1997, William Shannon, "Thomas Merton: To Russia with Love," p. 16; William Short, review of Turning toward the World: The Pivotal Years, p. 26; December 6, 1997, James Eudes Bamberger, review of Thomas Merton and James Laughlin: Selected Letters, p. 24; February, 21, 1998, Emilie Griffin, review of "Something of a Rebel": Thomas Merton, His Life and Works: An Introduction, p. 22; May 23, 1998, review of Dancing in the Water of Life: Seeking Peace in the Hermitage, p. 31; October 3, 1998, review of The Other Side of the Mountain: The End of the Journey, 1967-1968, p. 28; July 4, 1998, Anna Brown, review of Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom, p. 22; March 4, 2000, Richard Hauser, "Father Louis up Close," p. 23.

American Book Review, March, 1990, p. 16.

Atlantic, May, 1949.

Best Sellers, November 15, 1970; April 15, 1971; August 15, 1973.

Bloomsbury Review, July, 1989, p. 23.

Book, December, 1998, review of The Seven Storey Mountain, p. 72.

Booklist, May 1, 1985, p. 1220; March 15, 1989, p. 1222; May 1, 1995, p. 1533; February 1, 1997, review of Striving towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz, p. 909; July, 1997, Steve Schroeder, review of Dancing in the Water of Life, p. 1778; July, 1998, Steve Schroeder, review of The Other Side of the Mountain, p. 1835.

Books and Culture, November, 2000, Timothy Jones, "The Uncensored Merton," p. 25; January, 2001, Mark Galli, "The Romance of the Cloister," p. 34.

Boston Globe, August 22, 1993, p. B14; December 7, 1993, p. 19.

Boston Review, February, 1985.

Catholic Historical Review, January 1997, review of At Home in the World: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Rosemary Radford Ruether, p. 171.

Catholic World, October, 1948; November, 1948; October, 1949; December, 1949, pp. 198-203; June, 1950; November, 1951; March, 1953; June, 1955; February, 1957; July, 1958; November, 1960; August, 1961; April, 1962; May-June, 1990, pp. 126, 133; May, 1994, p. 148.

Chicago Tribune, January 27, 1985; May 22, 1992, p. C9.

Choice, December, 1997, review of Thomas Merton and James Laughlin, p. 638; September, 2001, W. C. Buchanan, review of When Prophecy Still Had a Voice: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Robert Lax, p. 136.

Christian Century, March 9, 1988, p. 242; March 22, 1995, p. 330; May 22, 1996, p. 570; July 30, 1997, Donald Grayson, review of Turning toward the World, p. 702; November 21, 2001, review of Dialogues with Silence: Prayers and Drawings, p. 47.

Christianity and Literature, summer, 2003, p. 557.

Church History, March, 1999, review of The Other Side of the Mountain, p. 230; June, 2001.

Columbia Literary Columns, November, 1989, pp. 18-30.

Commentary, April, 1965, pp. 90, 92-94.

Commonweal, June 22, 1945, pp. 240-242; December 27, 1946; August 13, 1948; April 15, 1949; October 14, 1949; October 26, 1951; February 27, 1953; May 13, 1955, pp. 155-159; July 6, 1956; June 9, 1961; March 16, 1962; April 19, 1963; March 12, 1965; January 10, 1969; October 17, 1969; February 27, 1970; January 22, 1971; October 12, 1973; February 3, 1978; November 18, 1983, pp. 634-637; October 19, 1984; February 28, 1986, p. 118; December 2, 1988, pp. 649-652; April 19, 1991, p. 270; February 25, 1994, pp. 26-28; September 9, 1994, p. 18; September 12, 1997, review of Journals of Thomas Merton and Striving towards Being, p. 36; March 12, 1999, review of The Seven Storey Mountain, p. 28.

Contemporary Literature, winter, 1973.

Critic, April, 1963; February, 1966; January, 1970; May, 1971; February 15, 1981.

Cross Currents, spring, 1999, George Kilcourse, Jr., "Thomas Merton's Contemplative Struggle: Bridging the Abyss to Freedom," p. 87; winter, 1999, Shaul Magid, "Monastic Liberation As Counter-Cultural Critique in the Life and Thought of Thomas Merton," p. 445.

Detroit Free Press, February 11, 1969.

First Things, February, 1997, Robert Royal, "The Several-Storied Thomas Merton," p. 34.

Hudson Review, spring, 1970, pp. 187-188; summer, 1978.

Journal of Pastoral Counseling, 2000, Marc Ricciardi, "As a Seed in the Cosmos," p. 155.

Journal of Religion, July, 1998, Robert Webster, "Thomas Merton and the Textuality of the Self," p. 387; January, 2000, Lawrence Cunningham, review of The Other Side of the Mountain, p. 141.

Kentucky Review, summer, 1987, pp. 1-145.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 1997, review of Dancing in the Water of Life, p. 619; May 15, 1998, review of The Other Side of the Mountain, p. 718.

Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, October 15, 1997, Art Jester, "Journal Relates 'Affair' of Famous Trappist Monk and Author Thomas Merton," p. 1015; December, 9, 1998, Art Jester, "Thirty Years after His Death, Noted Monk Thomas Merton Is Remembered," p. K4163.

Library Journal, June 1, 1997, Mark Woodhouse, review of Dancing in the Water of Life, p. 104; July, 1997, Mark Woodhouse, review of Thomas Merton and James Laughlin, p. 88; September 1, 1998, review of The Seven Storey Mountain, p. 224; October 15, 1999, Augustine Curley, review of The Intimate Merton, p. 76; January 1, 2001, Carolyn Craft, review of When Prophecy Still Had a Voice, p. 114; October 1, 2001, Graham Christian, review of Dialogues with Silence, p. 108; July, 2003, Stephen Joseph, review of The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation and Prayer, p. 87.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, December 14, 1980; December 30, 1984; October 13, 1985.

Motive, October, 1967.

Nation, November 6, 1948.

National Catholic Reporter, January 29, 1988, p. 7; July 14, 1989, p. 2; September 22, 1989, p. 17; April 12, 1991, p. 24; December 10, 1993, pp. 22-23; March 8, 1996, p. 14; May 9, 1997, William Graham, review of The Springs of Contemplation: A Retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemane, p. 14.

National Review, May 31, 1985, p. 42; December 5, 1994, p. 80; October 10, 2003, Peter Feuerherd, review of The Inner Experience, p. 4.

Negro Digest, December, 1967.

New Leader, March 24, 1997, Phoebe Pettingell, review of Striving towards Being, p. 13.

New Republic, October 4, 1948; September 12, 1949.

Newsweek, December 10, 1984.

New Yorker, October 5, 1946; October 9, 1948; October 8, 1949.

New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review, October 24, 1948.

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New York Times Book Review, October 3, 1948, pp. 4, 33; February 8, 1953, pp. 1, 30; February 14, 1965; April 17, 1966; July 2, 1967; March 30, 1969; March 15, 1970; March 14, 1971; July 8, 1973; February 5, 1978, p. 20; May 23, 1982, p. 15; December 23, 1984; September 17, 1989, p. 25; February 12, 1995, p. 22.

Our Sunday Visitor, January 25, 1987.

Parabola, February, 1991, p. 124.

Philosophy East and West, January, 1998, Frank Hoffman, review of The Golden Age of Zen, p. 165.

Poetry, February, 1945; December, 1946; October, 1948; July, 1950.

Publishers Weekly, December 7, 1984; April 14, 1997, review of Dancing in the Water of Life, p. 69; November 24, 1997, review of Learning to Love, p. 68; May 11, 1998, review of The Other Side of the Mountain, p. 65; September 28, 1998, review of The Seven Storey Mountain, p. 94; November 30, 1998, review of Thoughts in Solitude, p. 66; January 25, 1999, review of Contemplation in a World of Action, p. 89; October 1, 2001, review of Dialogues with Silence, p. 57; May 26, 2003, review of The Inner Experience, p. 65.

Renascence, winter, 1974; spring, 1978.

Saturday Review of Literature, October 9, 1948; April 16, 1949; September 17, 1949; February 11, 1950.

Sewanee Review, summer, 1969; winter, 1973; autumn, 1973.

Sojourners, January-February, 2002, review of Dialogues with Silence, p. 51.

Theology Today, April, 1999, Gary Commins, "Thomas Merton's Three Epiphanies," p. 59.

Thought, September, 1974.

Time, January 24, 1968; December 31, 1984.

Times Literary Supplement, December 23, 1949; May 22, 1959; February 12, 1970; May 5, 1972; August 14 1998, review of Learning to Love and Dancing in the Water of Life, p. 31.

U.S. Catholic, January, 1993, p. 20; December, 1993, p. 20; June, 1994, p. 33; April, 2000, Jim Forest, "Within Merton Within," p. 22.

Utne Reader, July-August, 2001, Craig Cox, "Passion Play," p. 98.

Virginia Quarterly Review, summer, 1968.

Wall Street Journal, June 4, 1985, p. 30.

Washington Post, September 4, 1969.

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Wilson Quarterly, summer, 1998, review of Striving towards Being, p. 107.

World Literature Today, spring, 1989, p. 311; summer, 1990, p. 469; autumn, 1997, Jerzy Maciuszko, review of Striving towards Being, p. 883.