James Finn was editor of «Worldview» "a journal of religion and international affairs".
Wesley First was director of the office of University Relations at Columbia University in New York.
Robert J. Fitzgibbon was editor of «Family Weekly» and writes from New York.
Fr. Daniel L. Flaherty was a Jesuit priest and book editor for «America» magazine.
Allan Forbes, Jr. was "a documentary filmmaker, writer, and peace activist" who "helped found Council for a Livable World with Leo Szilard, the physicist who worked with the Manhattan Project, then tried to get the US government to promise not to use the atomic bomb against Japan." He writes to Merton from Philadelphia. (Source: Marquard, Bryan. "Allan Forbes; pacifist found direction in war." Obituary from «The Boston Globe», online edition. 24 February 2006. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 4 April 2008. ‹http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2006/02/24/allan_forbes_pacifist_found_direction_in_war/›.)
Anne Ford was an author and publishing executive for Houghton Mifflin Company in Boston, Massachusetts.
Fr. John C. Ford was a Jesuit priest writing from Washington, D.C. He was a professor at a number of universities, including Boston College and Weston College in Massachusetts. He founded the journal «Theological Studies».
A life-long activist for peace, Forest first came into contact with Merton through Dorothy Day while Forest was at the Catholic Worker in New York. He was active in the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and started the Catholic Peace Fellowship (CPF), an affiliate program of FOR, to assist those trying to obtain Conscientious Objector status in 1964. In 1977, Forest assumed the duty of General Secretary of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) based in the Netherlands.
Seymour "Sy" Freedgood was one of Merton's friends from Columbia University. It was through Freedgood that Merton met the Hindu monk Bramachari, whom Merton describes in «The Seven Storey Mountain». He was one of the Columbia group who had attended Merton's ordination in 1949. Sy Freedgood was later an editor at «Fortune Magazine», and Merton was in contact with his wife, Anne, at Doubleday. He did not seem to settle into a religious tradition, but constantly read and struggled with religion. He wanted to visit Gethsemani in 1964 to dialogue with D. T. Suzuki but it did not come about. In 1967, he arranged a trip to Gethsemani. Merton interpreted a car accident Freedgood had on the way to the monastery as a gloomy portent, and Freedgood would be killed in a house fire the following year. His wit and sense of humor are evident in his arrangement of a shipment of crates of all 57 varieties of Heinz products to be delivered to the monastery to the abbot's shock. He made Merton a member of the Steering Committee of NIPS, the National Institutes of Public Scolds, an organization dedicated to lampooning bureaucratic red tape and causing other mischief. (Sources: «The Road to Joy», p. 123; and The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, pp. 163-164.)
Jerome Fried was an editor for New Directions publishing.
Fr. Richard Friedrich was the Associate Dean of Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky.
Horace L. Friess was writing to the Nobel Institute on behalf of Thich Nhat Hanh. Friess was a professor of philosophy and religion at Columbia University.
Marice "Mimi" Gaither was a long time supporter of Gethsemani and often sent money for Mass intentions. She writes from Louisville.
Sara Galbraith writes from Newry, Pennsylvania.
Barry Garfinkel was an attorney from New York with the firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. Merton's friend John H. Slate had died in September of 1967.
Emilio Garrigues was the Spanish ambassador to Guatemala.
Hugh Garvey was a publisher and editor for Templegate and writes from Springfield, Illinois.
Ann Gates writes from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Sr. Genevieve of the Eucharist was from a Carmelite monastery in Baltimore, Maryland.
Therese Giahieu writes from Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
Robert Gibney was one of Merton's closest friends from Columbia University. He filed as a conscientious objector for World War II, but was drafted. He married another of Merton's friends after the war, Nancy Flagg, who was a graduate of Smith College in Boston. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, pp. 178-179.)
Tom Giering was a former student of Berea College in Kentucky who had visited Gethsemani. At the time of writing to Merton, he lived in New York.
Br. Matthias Gill was a Trappist monk of Gethsemani Abbey. He was also a contributor to the fourth edition of «Monks Pond» (incorrectly listed as Mathias Ginn).
Dom Ignace Gillet was Abbot General of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists) from 1963-1974.
Etienne Gilson was a medieval scholar that was influential in Merton's early conversion to Catholicism while at Columbia University. Especially important to Merton was Gilson's book «The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy». Gilson was educated at the Sorbonne, taught throughout Europe and was later admitted to the Académie Française. He was instrumental in the founding of the Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, where he was at the time of his correspondence with Merton. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 30.)
At the time of writing to Merton, David Glanz was an Editor of the Washington University student publication, «Freelance».
Tommy Glover was a former monk of Gethsemani Abbey, known as Br. Joshua, and one of the few African Americans at the monastery.
Banks O. Godfrey, Jr. writes from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Don Gold writes as Assistant to the Editor of «Holiday» magazine.
Fausto Gomes Romáo writes to Merton from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Denys Gorce writes from Grenade-sur-Adour, France.
Fr. Norbert Gorrissen was a Trappist monk of the monastery of Orval in southern Belgium. He inquires about contemporary problems in monasticism. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 229.)
Gregory Griffin was the son of John Howard Griffin. He did some photographic processing for Merton. He writes from Fort Worth, Texas.
William Grimes spent time as a novice at Gethsemani Abbey under the name Br. Alcuin. He left in the autumn of 1964. Merton and Grimes continued to exchange letters in subsequent years.
Fr. Filiberto Guala was a monk of the Cistercian abbey of Frattocchi which is near Rome. Pope Paul VI, a longtime friend of Guala, commissioned him and his Abbot, Francis Decroix, to write up a "Message of Contemplatives" to present to a Synod of Bishops. Merton and others were asked to contribute and much of Merton's addition was used. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 344.)
Foster Hailey was a «New York Times» correspondent who spent much of the 1950's on assignment in the Middle East. It seems the two men were acquainted and corresponded prior to this 1961 letter and had last been in touch in the late 1950's.
Alfred Starr Hamilton was a poet and contributor to «Monks Pond». In his biographical statement from «Monks Pond», he states that he had lived through the depression and spent a year in the army; since then, he became a socialist and lived on very little money as a poet.
Fr. Hamman was a Franciscan writing from Notre Dame des Buis in Besançon, France.
Veronica (Moni) Hammer was a daughter of Victor Hammer and writes from Vienna, Austria.
Monsignor James J. Hammon was Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Natchez, Mississippi.
Charles Hansel was Director of Religious Life at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky.
Sibyl Harton was an Anglican and an author writing from England. She had visited Gethsemani and met Merton in October of 1964.
Freida "Nanny" Hauck was the mother of Elsie Hauck Holahan (later Jenkins). Elsie had moved in to the home of Merton's maternal grandparents, Samuel and "Mattie" Baldwin Jenkins, to take care of Tom and his younger brother John Paul Merton after the death of their mother Ruth Jenkins in 1921. (Elsie later married Merton's uncle, Harold Jenkins). Freida Hauck lived in Great Neck, New York.
Rosemary Haughton was a Catholic theologian and author. She was born in England, but lived in many places in Europe, and once in the United States, while young and now resides in the United States. She wrote books regarding Catholic culture, feminist spirituality, marriage and sexuality, and books for children.
The following year after writing to Merton, Terence Heelas began writing for «The Strategic Commentary». In this weekly periodical, he advocated that the United States could not win the Vietnam War; therefore, by simple military logic, should leave Vietnam. Heelas seems to have written Merton with some of his earlier ideas on strategic planning on November 27, 1964 (letter is not extant). Merton gives his opinion on such strategic arguments.
Fr. Elmer J. Henderson was a Jesuit priest and Managing Editor of the quarterly review «Thought».
Ammon Hennacy writes as the Director of the Joseph Hill House of Hospitality and St. Joseph's Refuge. The house fed the hungry and commemorated Joe Hill, who was a labor leader accused of murder (some say framed) and executed by the state of Utah in 1915. Hennacy was a pacifist and advocate for prisoners on death row. He converted to Catholicism in 1952 and shortly after served as an associate editor in New York for the «Catholic Worker» until moving to Salt Lake City and founding Joseph Hill House in 1961. (Source: Thomas, Joan. "Ammon Hennacy: A Brief Biography". Catholic Worker Home Page: 1994. ‹http://www.catholicworker.com/ah_bio.htm›, accessed: 2005/03/25.)
Dagmar Henne was with the German Department of the publisher Agence Hoffman and writes from Munich, Germany.
Fr. Theodore M. Hesburgh was a priest of the Congregation of the Holy Cross and served as president of Notre Dame University from 1952-1987. He served on the United States Commission on Civil Rights from 1957 to 1972 and later chaired the commission. He was also active in opposition to the Vietnam War and support of the rights of immigrants to this country. Merton's letter is not extant, but he seems to write in relation to atomic weapons and Hesburgh's position as Vatican representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, a duty performed from 1956-1970.
Geof Hewitt is a poet who, at the time of correspondence with Merton, was 24 and living in Iowa. Having begun writing as a teen, he had by 1968 founded a small specialty press, Kumquat Press. Merton publishes some of Hewitt's poems in the first issue of «Monks Pond». Hewitt would publish another of «Monks Pond»'s poets, Alfred Starr Hamilton. He now resides in Vermont and has published books of his poems and books on writing and teaching poetry. (Source: «The Road to Joy», p. 362.)
H. A. M. van der Heyden writes from Utrecht, the Netherlands on behalf of the publisher Uitgeverij Het Spectrum.
Gertrude Hindemith was the wife of Paul Hindemith (1895-1963), a modern violinist and composer. They were born and married in Germany but left after the Nazis rose to power. After spending a brief period in Switzerland, Paul took a job as professor at Yale from 1940 to 1953. In 1953, they moved to Zürich, Switzerland, where this correspondence begins (it seems they had corresponded before this time). Some letters are co-signed by Paul Hindemith.
Glenn Hinson is a Baptist professor who was teaching at Southern Seminary in Louisville at the time of writing to Merton. In the early 1960's, he brought groups of Baptist students to visit Merton at Gethsemani. Later, Dom James Fox asked that Merton stop meeting with such groups because he would require more solitude to fully live the eremitical life. Now officially in retirement, he is a visiting professor at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky in Lexington, Lexington Theological Seminary, Bellarmine University and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
Merton writes to James Hoban in response to a question about the Catholic Church's position regarding modern war.
Jim Holloway came to Berea College in 1965 where he would remain as a professor before retiring in 1992. He was co-founder with Will Campbell of «Katallagete» (Greek for "be reconciled!"), a magazine sponsored by the Committee of Southern Churchmen (CSC) and to which Merton contributed. Holloway served as editor.
Edwin Honig writes as a professor in the Department of English at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Lorna Hooper was Secretary of the West Campaigners against Factory Farming / West of England Campaign against Factory Farming (WECAFF). She writes from Bristol, England.
Bob Hoyt writes as Editor of the National Catholic Reporter from Kansas City, Missouri.
Jack Huber writes from New York in thanks for Merton's comment on Huber's book «Through and Eastern Window». He was a clinical psychologist who wrote a book on Zen.
Br. Hugh was a Trappist from Gethsemani writing about a minor issue of sorting mail with Merton while he was visiting the Trappistine nuns at Redwoods Monastery in California.
H. Stuart Hughes was a scholar of the intellectual history of Europe, author, and professor at Harvard University at the time of writing to Merton. His first letter to Merton is written shortly after a failed bid for United States Senator of Massachusetts on an Independent ticket, losing to Ted Kennedy in 1962. Previously, Merton had been contacted by the group Artists and Writers for Hughes, to whom he sent a reply with some contributions of his writing. Hughes was involved in the Massachusetts Political Action for Peace, which awarded Merton their Pax Peace Prize in 1963. His 1967 telegram is written while Chair of the SANE, "A Citizens’ Organization for a Sane World", which called for worldwide nuclear disarmament. (Sources: "H. Stuart Hughes: In Memoriam." «Perspectives»: March 2000. American Historical Association website. ‹http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2000/0003/0003mem2.cfm›, Accessed: 2005/04/28.)
Takashi Ikemoto and Yuji Nakata translated «Mystics and Zen Masters» into Japanese. He writes from Yamaguchi City, Japan.
Carmen Irizarry was born in Puerto Rico. After spending some time in Spain, she moved to New York to work for the Catholic magazine, «Jubilee». She writes at the suggestion of Merton's friend, Bob Lax.
Fr. Bruno Scott James (later Monsignor) was a Catholic priest from England who asked Merton's help in putting together a book of translations of «The Letters of St. Bernard of Clairvaux». Inspired by a book by Morris West about Don Mario Borelli in the slums of Naples, James moves to Naples in the early sixties to found John Henry Newman College, which served as a residence for students at the University of Naples. After writing other books on Bernard of Clairvaux and on prayer, James wrote an autobiography entitled «Asking for Trouble» in 1962.
After the death of Thomas and John Paul Merton's mother in 1921, Elsie Hauck Holahan came into the house of Merton's maternal grandparents, the Jenkins, to help take care of the two boys. She stayed in the household to take care of Merton's grandmother, "Mattie" Baldwin Jenkins. Elsie Hauck was the widow of Captain Patrick Holahan, who had fought in the Easter Rebellion in Ireland in 1916. After both of Thomas Merton's grandparents had died, his uncle, Harold Brewster Jenkins, inherited his parents house and married Elsie Hauck in 1938. When Merton moved back to Long Island in the 1930's, he grew close to Elsie's mother, Freida "Nanny" Hauck. Nancy Hauck Boettcher informed Merton in 1964 of Nanny's poor health and sent him a telegram in 1965 informing him of her death. Merton writes with his condolescences to Elsie. (Source: «The Road to Joy», p. 57 and 71.)
Lyndon Johnson was the United States' thirty-sixth President. Merton writes to him to express concern about the Vietnam War and the threat of nuclear war with communist nations, citing "Pacem in Terris" from the Second Vatican Council. He thanks Johnson for his commitment to civil rights and the war on poverty.
Ronald Johnson was a poet and common friend of Merton's with poet Jonathan Williams. Merton sent Johnson one of his drawings and Johnson sent Merton some of his poems, including his book «The Green Man».
While visiting Redwoods Abbey in the spring of 1968, Merton met Gracie Jones. (She is of no relation to Frank Jones of Merton's correspondence.) She wrote an article for the San Francisco archdiocesan newspaper after Merton's death discussing the meaningfulness to her of sharing retreat space with Merton, his support for her as an African-American Catholic, and his offer to write a preface for a book she had planned to write, "The Negro and the Catholic Church."
Lindsay Jones writes from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She may have had class with Amiya Chakravarty, who put two other Smith students in contact with Merton, Diana Eck and Janice Wilson.
This letter is signed by five Sisters of Charity of Nazareth in Kentucky. All signatures bear the hand of the letter's author, and the first name is Sr. Jude, who is the person addressed by Merton. The other sisters are Susan, Anne, Deborah and Luke in the order listed in the letter. The author of the letter explains to Merton that the sisters are experimenting with living as groups of five. Merton responds with his views on community in a monastic setting.
Elizabeth Land Kaderli was planning to publish a book containing letters she had received concerning the subject of death from prominent scientists, religious leaders, artists, musicians and authors. Merton had written her in 1962, but no there are no extant letters in the Merton Center collection. Some of the other correspondents included Mark Van Doren, Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, Robert Oppenheimer, Reinhold Niebuhr, Eleanor Roosevelt, Julian Huxley, Paul Tillich, J. Frank Dobie, Leonard Bernstein, C.S. Lewis, Graham Greene, and Katherine Anne Porter. Kaderli intended the book to be entitled «Letters to Carrie», which did not seem to have been published, possibly due to too many restrictions on usage permissions. Merton gives his consent.
Lila Karpf was Director of Subsidiary Rights for Farrar, Straus and Giroux and asks Merton if he is interested in allowing Buchet-Chastel rights to publish «Seasons of Celebration».
Nicholas de Belleville Katzenbach was United States Undersecretary of State under President Lyndon B. Johnson. He had previously served as Attorney General. Merton writes in plea for the civilian victims of the Vietnam War that the United States make a humanitarian gesture to provide medical relief to the civilian population in North Vietnam.
