Correspondence: Letters to and from Thomas Merton

Item set

Title

Creator

Thomas Merton See all item sets with this value

Date

1931-1968, with some ancillary letters to or from Merton family members from 1909 and letters to or from the Merton Center dating the period after Merton's death See all item sets with this value

Identifier

Thomas Merton Collection, Section A: Correspondence.

Volume

40 cubic feet; 16 file drawers

Subject

Merton, Thomas, 1915-1968--Correspondence. See all item sets with this value

Format

Paper records in file folders

Items

Advanced search

1968-07-11: Letter from Thomas Merton to August Schou, Secretary of the Nobel Prize Committee, recommending Vinoba Bhave for the Nobel Peace Prize
1965-03-09: Letter from Thomas Merton to Robert D. Crane (with handwritten annotations by Crane)

Robert D. Crane was a Research Associate with the Center for Strategic Studies and was later with the Hudson Institute for National Security and International Order in Croton-on-Hudson, New York. He was involved in Republican Party functions and conservative-leaning think-tanks on national and international security and outer space security. He was a chief advisor to Richard Nixon from 1962-1967. In 1980, he converted to Islam and took the name Farooq Abdul Haq.
1962-08-09: Letter from Thomas Merton to Shinzo Hamai, Mayor of Hiroshima, Japan
1971-02-02 #2: Book promotional advertisement for The Virtue of Sex by José de Vinck with a blurb by Thomas Merton. Sent by de Vinck to the Merton Center with a letter of 2 February 1971.
1967-04-05 #2: Book flap for The Virtue of Sex by José de Vinck (second printing) with a blurb by Thomas Merton on the back cover. Sent by de Vinck to Merton with a letter of 4 May 1967.
1954-02-14: Letter to Thomas Merton from Sr. Thérèse de l'Enfant Jesus et de l'Immaculée, M.C.D.
1968-03-12: Letter to Thomas Merton from Jean Sulzberger

Jean Sulzberger writes on behalf of Time-Life Books in New York and asks for a copy of Thomas Merton's literary magazine, Monks Pond.
1953-12-04: Letter to Thomas Merton from Fr. Nivard Kinsella, O.C.S.O.

Kinsella, though expressing positive feedback overall with Merton's book The Ascent to Truth, takes issue with an assertion about modern Thomists (or would like to know Merton's source for his claim) and finds Merton's presentation of "acquired contemplation" and "infused contemplation" to be confusing.
1967-05-13: Letter to Thomas Merton from Dorothy Dohen

Ivan Illich / Merton's essay, "The English Mystics," in Mystics and Zen Masters - Julian of Norwich / distrust of mysticism - Vatican II - Daniel Callahan's article, "The Renewal Mess" / questions Merton omitting the Spanish mystics - connection between St. John of the Cross and Zen
1967-04-29: Letter from Thomas Merton to Dorothy Dohen

Merton sends an "anti-poem about the bomb" (likely "Original Child Bomb") and a copy of his book Mystics and Zen Masters, especially thinking Dohen would appreciate his essay "From Pilgrimage to Crusade."