Items

• 1962-07-09: Postcard to Merton from "Zahn, Gordon Charles, 1918-2007." Photograph of Sankt Radegund cemetery in Austria with grave of Franz Jägerstätter circled in pen by Gordon Zahn sent to Thomas Merton, 1962 July 9.
  Thomas Merton asked Gordon Zahn if he had a photograph of the grave of Franz Jägerstätter. Zahn sent Merton a photograph with the grave marked in pen. Blessed Franz Jägerstätter was an Austrian, Catholic lay person, and conscientious objector during the Second World War. The Nazi regime denied him an alternative to armed combat. He was imprisoned and executed in 1943.
• Daniel Berrigan excerpt on religious vows and the relationship of sacraments to community life: from Merton Recordings #017 Tr-3 - Rev. Dan Berrigan S.J. "Poverty" (4:26-6:13)
• St. Robert of Molesme and the Foundation of Cîteaux. Extract from Thomas Merton's "Cistercian History. Notes."
  Handwritten notes by Thomas Merton on Citeaux and Saint Robert of Molesme likely used as an outline for teaching novices monastic history. This extract from a longer group of notes is Section 6 in "Cistercian History. Notes" from Merton Center Sub-Section E.1.
• The Annunciation excerpt from a manuscript of The Ascent to Truth
  Page 397 of a manuscript of "The Ascent to Truth" corresponding to page 317 of the first published edition by Harcourt Brace in 1951. The manuscript has a draft title of "The Ascent to Light."
• "The Awakening of a New Consciousness in Zen," paper by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, review by Thomas Merton.
• Journal for the Protection of All Beings, No. 1 (1961), cover and contents
  The first piece in the first issue of the journal is Thomas Merton's poem, "Chant To Be Used In Processions Around a Site With Furnaces." Other contributions by: Bertrand Russell, Gary Snyder, Kay Johnson, Antonin Artaud, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs (interviewed), Albert Camus, Michael McClure, James Mitchell, David Meltzer, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Norman Mailer.
• A page from the final manuscript of the book The Climate of Monastic Prayer (more widely known as Contemplative Prayer) written by Thomas Merton and published posthumously. The page begins Chapter XV in the manuscript and in the published edition.
• Thomas Merton's handwritten notes on the book La philosophie bantoue (Paris, Présence africaine [1961]) by Fr. Placides Temples.
• Excerpt from "The (Almost) Final Days of Thomas Merton: A Conversation with Harold Talbott." Interview conducted by Bonnie B. Thurston.
  Harold Talbott describes how he came to know both Thomas Merton and the Dalai Lama. After having met Merton 10 years earlier at Gethsemani Abbey, Talbot met Merton again in New Delhi and brought Merton to meet the Dalai Lama at Dharamsala. Bonnie Thurston interviews Harold Talbott.
• RG2001-12-10 - Giroux Photograph Collection
  Abbey of Gethsemani: tall grass in foreground, wooden fence and big tree on right, water tower partially obscured by tree, pre-1966 steeple to left of center.