Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1963-1968 (Creation)
Extent
40 item(s)
Name of creator
Biographical history
Dom John Eudes Bamberger stepped down as abbot of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Genesee in 2001. He came to Gethsemani in 1951 after having read «The Seven Storey Mountain» in the navy. He was sent to Washington, D.C., for studies in the psychiatric field and later helped Merton and Fr. Matthew Kelty in screening new applicants to the novitiate. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, pp. 22-23).
Name of creator
Biographical history
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a writer and Trappist monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky. His writings include such classics as The Seven Storey Mountain, New Seeds of Contemplation, and Zen and the Birds of Appetite. Merton is the author of more than seventy books that include poetry, personal journals, collections of letters, social criticism, and writings on peace, justice, and ecumenism.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This series contains correspondence kept by John Eudes Bamberger between Merton and other, most of whom are Gethsemani monks and mostly regarding Merton's medical problems.
System of arrangement
Letters were kept in original order, which is not chronological. The items within the series have a sequential numbering.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Transferred from Dom John Eudes Bamberger to the Thomas Merton Center in 2006.