Walter O'Connell writes from Waco, Texas.
Fr. Gabriel O'Connell was a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Our Lady of the Valley in Valley Falls, Rhode Island.
Barbara O'Connell was an eighth grade student from Arlington, Massachusetts. She was to write a class paper about a famous writer and chose Merton. She asks for some information about himself and his writing.
Valerio Ochetto writes from Radiotelevisione Italiana on behalf of Giorgio La Pira. He invites Merton to appear on an interview concerning the atomic bomb.
At the time of writing to Merton, Nancy Occhineri was in her senior year at Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford, Connecticut. She had just read Thomas Merton's «The Seven Storey Mountain». After leaving the area for graduate studies, she returned to Hartford and served as a teacher in the urban area for over 30 years. She remains an avid reader of Merton's work.
Victoria Ocampo was a prolific author, essayist, biographer, publisher who became a feminist heroine challenging the limited roles of women in the Victorian world of the early twentieth century and in Argentine society. She came from a wealthy family, was well traveled and received an international education. She published the journal «Sur» ("the South"), which bridged North and South American culture and the best minds of Europe. She included Merton among the many diverse authors she published and translated. (Source: «The Courage for Truth», pp. 207-208.)
Thomasine ("Tommie") O'Callaghan was a close friend of Merton's through much of the 1960's. They met through a mutual friend and former professor, Daniel Walsh, whom Merton knew from a graduate course at Columbia University and O'Callaghan knew through the College of the Sacred Heart at Manhattanville, Purchase, New York. Merton became an adopted part of the O'Callaghan family in Louisville, getting to know Tommie's husband Frank and becoming "Uncle Louie" to the seven O'Callaghan children. Sometime Merton would visit the O'Callaghan's in conjunction with doctor's visits in Louisville. Tommie O'Callaghan also planned some picnics for Merton at Gethsemani. Merton chose her as a local member of the trustees of his literary estate in addition to the others from the publishing world in the northeast, Naomi Burton Stone and James Laughlin. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, pp. 340-341.)
Thomas J. O'Brien served with John Paul Merton (Thomas' younger brother) in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in Canada and instructed John Paul in flying. Later, O'Brien applied for entry to the Trappists at Gethsemani, but was denied entry. Merton mentions him as a postulant at Gethsemani in November of 1958. He responds to a letter from O'Brien in 1961 (O'Brien's letter not extant) suggesting other monasteries that might be better for O'Brien. O'Brien lived at St. Joseph's House of Hospitality in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1958 to his death in 1980, later becoming its manager.
Thomas O'Brien was a religion teacher at Brother Rice High School in Chicago, Illinois. He was working on a graduate degree in education at this time. He asks Merton's advice for a paper he was writing for a course. O'Brien entitled his paper: "Catholic Church Non-Involvement in Ghetto Areas, and Consequent Adverse Effect on Negro Acculturation". (Source: «The Road to Joy», pp. 364.)
Ethelmary Oakland writes from Olean, New York, sending a poem of Merton's friend Robert Lax, "A Song for Our Lady Notre Dame de la Garde Marseille". (Poem not extant in file.)
Fr. A. Nuy was a Benedictine priest of St. Willibrord's Abbey in the Netherlands.
Archbishop Adolph Alexander Noser was born in Belleville, Illinois. He became a priest of the Society of the Divine Word (Divine Word Missionaries). He was ordained bishop and was sent to Accra, Ghana, in 1950. Merton and Noser began contact in 1968, after Noser was appointed Archbishop of Madang, Papua New Guinea.
Lord Northbourne, born Walter Ernest Christopher James, was the 4th Baron Northbourne, residing in Deal, Kent, England. Lord Northbourne began as an agronomist, serving as Provost of Wye College of University of London. After reading Marco Pallis, he became involved in the Traditionalist / Perennialist movement of writers. Northbourne sometimes used the «nom de plume» of Sidi Nuh. Pallis in turn suggested that he send Merton a copy of his book, «Religion in the Modern World». Merton sent him back a copy of his response to the document of the Second Vatican Council entitled, «Gaudium et Spes» (the Church in the Modern World). Merton's essay, later incorporated into «Redeeming the Time», was called "The Church and the 'Godless' World". (Sources: «Witness to Freedom».; and "Northbourne, Lord". World Wisdom Books (website). 6 Jan. 2006. ‹http://worldwisdom.com/author/Detail.asp?AuthorID=43&WhatType=2›.)
Fr. Gregory Norris was Benedictine priest writing from Saint Gregory's Priory in Three Rivers, Michigan.
Edward Noonan was an architect from Chicago, Illinois.
Sr. Marie Nöel was a Dominican nun from Oullins, France
Richard Nixon, then President-Elect of the United States, wrote letters to prominent individuals to ask them to suggest "exceptional individuals" for presidential appointments. Merton would have not received the letter as he was in Asia and days from his death in Bangkok.
Sr. M. Nivard was a Religious Sister of Mercy from Villa Maria Convent in Christchurch, New Zealand. She sent a clipping about the Wahine disaster, a ferry that sank between two of New Zealand's islands, and which killed Merton's Aunt "Kit", Agnes Gertrude Stonehewer Merton.
Ilse F. Niswonger was an Oblate of St. Benedict at Regina Laudis Abbey in Bethlehem, Connecticut. She was an artist and offered her services for a statue of the Virgin Mary. This is likely the job that Merton eventually commissioned Jaime Andrade to sculpt.
Keiji Nishitani was Editor of «The Eastern Buddhist», a magazine founded by D. T. Suzuki to promote East-West understanding. Nishitani asks for Merton's contribution for a memorial issue on Dr. Suzuki. Keiji Nishitani writes from Kyoto, Japan.
Rena Niles was the wife of John Jacob Niles, the composer of the Niles-Merton Song Cycle, with poetry by Merton and music by John Jacob Niles. She writes from their farm in Lexington, Kentucky.
John Jacob Niles was the composer of the Niles-Merton Song Cycles with the poetry of Thomas Merton.
Bishop Matthew A. Niedhammer (Matteo Aloisio Niedhammer y Yaeckle) was the Apostolic Vicariate in Bluefields, Nicaragua. Merton is inquiring about moving to Nicaragua to set up a hermitage on Corn Island.
Lorine Niedecker was a poet who lived most of her life on Rock River in Wisconsin. She worked many odd jobs through the years and married twice, starting to write verse in the 1930's after attending Beloit College. She moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her second husband and died of a stroke in 1970. Louis Zukofsky was an influence on her poetry, the two of them having corresponded in the 1930's. She had a number of poems published in books and magazines, including some by Jonathan Williams and Cid Corman. Merton publishes some of her poems in the first volume of «Monks Pond». (Source: Monks Pond, p. 62.)
Donald Nicholl was from the History Department at University of Keele in Staffordshire, England.
Thich Nhât Hanh was a Buddhist monk, originally from Vietnam. During the Vietnam war, he struggled to negotiate peace and end the conflict between the North and South in a non-partisan fashion. In so doing, he was condemned by both sides and had to flee the country. After leaving Vietnam, he lectured in the United States. In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr. nominated Nhât Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize. In later years, he lived in France at a monastic community called Plum Village. (Sources: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, pp. 325-326; and the Plum Village website, ‹plumvillage.org›.)
S. H. Newman writes from El Paso, Texas. He had once entered the Trappists but was rejected before vows because they feared he was going blind. He spent time with the Carthusians, but was dismissed for disobedience. He did not go blind, married, and became the father of two girls. He includes a letter to his brother, Fletcher (Fletch) Newman, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey in Oregon.
Mary E. Newman writes from West Palm Beach, Florida, to report a miracle purported to have occurred after reading «Exile Ends in Glory» and praying to Mother Berchmans and Maria Goretti.
James Roy Newman wrote a number of popular books about mathematics.
Norman Neuman was a Lutheran minister writing from Lutheran Social Services in Brooklyn, New York. He had skills in drawing and painting and asked how to use these artistic gifts to serve God and how to overcome the "problem of communicating to «modern man»."
Mother Carole Neri was a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany, New York. At the time of writing to Merton, she was not yet the superior (still Sr. Carole) and was Mistress of Novices.
J. Robert Nelson was dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School from 1957-1960. He was later dean at Boston University School of Theology from 1965-1985.
Dorothy Neff writes from Virginia Beach, Virginia, in response to «The Seven Storey Mountain» and «The Sign of Jonas».
Allen R. Neff was an English professor at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Illinois. Claire Livingston asked him to send Merton some poems for consideration in «Monks Pond». Merton included his work in volume three of «Monks Pond».
Susan Neer was a high school student from Saint Ann, Missouri. Her father tells her that statements about racism in the South by John Howard Griffin are exaggerated, and she asks Merton's opinion.
Brendan Nagle was from Malibu, California.
Virginia Naeve is the author of a proposal referencing Thomas Merton. There is no correspondence in this file; however, it quotes a message from Abbot James Fox who writes on behalf of Thomas Merton.
Fr. Christopher Mwoleka became Bishop of Rulenge in Tanzania in 1969. When he first wrote to Merton in 1967, he explains that he had first read Merton in 1952, and that «Seeds of Contemplation» was an inspiration for him to leave his job as an office clerk and enter seminary. He was ordained in 1962 and would later read a number of Merton's books. Shortly after beginning their correspondence, Mwoleka began teaching at St. Charles Lwanga's Katoke Seminary in Biharamulo.
André Muzac writes on behalf of La Haute-Auvergne Societe des Lettres, Sciences et Art from Aurillac, France.
A. J. Muste was born in Holland, moved with his family to the United States at six, and later attended Union Theological Seminary and became a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church. He was a pacifist and life-long advocate for peace and civil rights, working with such groups at the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and the War Resisters League. Even in his later years, he continued his opposition to war in resisting United States involvement in Vietnam.