Sr. Mildred was a Benedictine sister of Regina Laudis monastery in Bethlehem, Connecticut.
Claude Michel writes on behalf of the Action Civique Non-Violente in St. Didier au Mont d'Or, France.
Michael "of Melrose" writes from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Mother Michael of Christ the King was a nun of the Carmel of Our Lady of the Mountains in Reno, Nevada.
Richard Meyers would later become a significant figure in punk rock under the name Richard Hell.
Sandy Meyer was a student at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri at the time of writing. Following Merton's correspondence with Barbara Ann Braveman, another member of the staff of the student publication «Free Lance» (also "Freelance"), Meyer came to Gethsemani to interview Merton on March 30, 1968 with Susan Smith, and students named Sally and Mike (possibly Michael Castro?).
Catherine Meyer was an editor for «Harper's Magazine» and writes from New York.
Dr. R. Meulet was part of a faculty of medicine in radiology in Bordeaux, France.
Paul Cuthbert Metcalf was a novelist associated with the Black Mountain school of the 1950's. He was the great-grandson of Herbert Melville. Brought up in the northeast, he went to Harvard for college but dropped out. His first attempt at writing after this was a failure. According to Metcalf, "[a]round 1940 or so I spent a summer living and studying (and drinking) with the poet Conrad Aiken." He held a number of small jobs after this until in 1945, he contacted tuberculosis. In his recovery in the mountains of northern Georgia, he read voraciously. Soon after, he wrote his first published book, «Will West». He began his association with Black Mountain College with a connection he had gained earlier in life. Charles Olsen had visited Metcalf's family while doing Melville research when Metcalf was 14. Through Olsen, Metcalf met poet Jonathan Williams of the Jargon Society, who became Metcalf's first publisher. It was through Williams that Metcalf was put in touch with Merton about writing for «Monks Pond». Another of Merton's friends, Guy Davenport, became a fan of Metcalf's work. At the time of writing to Merton, Metcalf was selling real estate in Chester, Massachusetts. He express a desire to Merton to get out of this and pursue writing full time. He was able to do this in the late sixties after receiving the inheritance from the death of his parents. By the end of his life, he had published over 20 books. Merton uses a section of his book «Patagoni» about Pre-Columbian South America. (Source: "Metcalf, Paul" World Authors." 1999. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 16 Dec. 2005. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
Vladimir Mertsalov was Director of the Institut zur Erforschung der UdSSRe.V. in Munich, Germany.
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.
Owen Merton was Thomas Merton's father. He was born in New Zealand, studied art in Paris, and traveled in Europe, Bermuda, the United States, and northern Africa to make a living as a landscape painter.
John Paul Merton was Thomas Merton's younger, and only, sibling. The boys spent much time apart, Thomas traveling with his father Owen, the painter, in France and England, where he was schooled. John Paul lived with his maternal grandparents, the Jenkins, and went to schools in New York and later military academy, graduating in the last class in 1935 from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania's academy. He attended Cornell and was there first interested in Catholicism, taking up flying with the Catholic chaplain, Fr. Donald Cleary. He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in 1941, intending to get involved in the Second World War and the United States was not yet committed. He went by the nickname "Mert". One of the correspondents in these letters, Thomas O'Brien, gave his flight training. John Paul visited Thomas Merton at Gethsemani during a leave in July of 1942. He expressed interest in becoming baptized Catholic and received expedited instructions from Thomas and Dom James Fox because he had only a week's leave. He was baptized July 26, 1942. In August 1942, John Paul was sent into action in England. While on leave in England, he met Margaret May Evans and married her in February of 1943. On April 16, 1943, he embarked in a Wellington bomber over the English Channel. For unknown reasons, the plane lost altitude and crashed. John Paul's back was broken, but he was taken aboard a dinghy with some survivors. He died the 17th, which was the Saturday of Passion Week. The others were rescued Holy Thursday, and Thomas Merton learned of his brother's death on Easter Tuesday. Thomas Merton responded with the poem, "For My Brother Reported Missing in Action, 1943", which concludes the «The Seven Storey Mountain». (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, pp. 294-295.)
John Merton was Thomas Merton's cousin, the son of John Llewellyn Charles Merton (Uncle Lyn). At the time of writing, he was an Anglican priest and Vicar of the Parochial District of New Brighton in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Source: «The Road to Joy», pp. 86.)
Gertrude Merton was Thomas Merton's grandmother. Born Gertrude Hannah Grierson in 1855, she immigrated at age nine with her parents to New Zealand. She married Alfred Merton in 1882. They had six children, including Owen Heathcote Merton (Thomas' father), John Llewellyn Charles Merton (Uncle Lyn), and Beatrice Katharine (Aunt Ka), Agnes Gertrude Stonehewer (Aunt Kit), and Gwynnedd Fanny Merton Trier (Aunt Gwynn). (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, pp. 293-294).
Beatrice Katherine Merton was Owen Merton's sister and Tom's Aunt "Ka". She was a nurse in Christchurch, New Zealand. She visited Tom Merton once in 1922 in Douglaston, New York. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, p. 293).
Agnes Gertrude Stonehewer Merton, Thomas Merton's Aunt "Kit", was Owen Merton's sister, and she lived in New Zealand. Thomas Merton met her twice: once coming with her mother Gertrude Hannah Merton to Flushing, New York, in 1919; and once visiting him at Gethsemani in 1961. She suffered a tragic death aboard the ferry «Wahine», which sank between New Zealand's largest islands. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, p. 293).
Frederick Merida writes from the Corner Shop and Gallery in Anchorage, Kentucky. He asks if Merton would like to exhibit some of his artwork at his gallery.
In 1952, Don Sergio Méndez Arceo became Bishop of Cuernavaca, México. He was know for his progressive views that sometimes got him into trouble with Rome. He fostered liturgical reform and the beginnings of what would emerge as liberation theology. He was supportive of the work of Ivan Illich at the Center for Intercultural Documentation (CIDOC).
Robert Menchin was working on a project involving career change and asks Merton's input on the subject. While the decision to go to a monastery is somewhat different, Merton describes his vocation to the monastic life and the thoughts he went through as an aspiring writer who may have had to give up that life.
Gianni Menarini was Editor of «Il Tarocco», an Italian magazine of literature and art. He asks Merton for a poem and a statement on the relationship between religion and poetry.
Carmen de Mello translated some of Merton's poems into Portuguese from "Poesias" by Ernesto Cardenal. The work was entitled «Vinho do silencio (Poesias)», and is an equivalent of «Selected Poems» in Portuguese. Carmen de Mello writes from Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Ernesto Mejía Sánchez was born in Nicaragua and lived his later life as a poet, essayist, literary critic, anthologist, and diplomat in Mexico. He can be placed with the "Generación del 40" and noted alongside other Nicaraguan poets, like Merton's friend Ernesto Cardenal and José Coronel Urtecho.
Fr. Michael D. Meilach was a Franciscan priest and Assistant Editor of «The Cord», "a spiritual Franciscan review". He writes from St. Bonaventure, New York.
Fr. James J. Megivern was Vincentian priest from St. John's University in New York.
Fr. Charles Meeus writes from the Archdiocese of Taegu [Daegu] in South Korea. He discusses Korean translations of Merton's "The General Dance" and a haiku by Merton, "Japanese Frog".
Dr. Joost A.M. Meerloo was a Dutch-born psychoanalyst specializing in the area of thought control techniques used by totalitarian regimes. Most of his family were killed by the Nazis, but he escaped to England in 1942 from a Nazi prison in the Netherlands. In 1946, he emigrated to the United States and took residence in New York where he continued to writes books and continue his practice as a psychoanalyst. He coined the term "mentacide", the killing of the mind as employed in brain-washing techniques. After writing to each other for since 1962, Meerloo visits Gethsemani in November of 1967 (see Merton's journal entry from November 7, 1967). His books include «Homo Militans», «The Psychology of War and Peace in Man», «Delusion and Mass Delusion», and «The Rape of the Mind». (Source: "Meerloo, Joost A. M." Current Biography. 1962. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 13 Dec. 2005. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
Sr. Xristine Anne Marie van der Meer de Walcheren was a Benedictine religious sister writing from Notre Dame Abbey in Oosterhout, the Netherlands.
Dom Petrus Balthazar Albertus van der Meer de Walcheren was a Benedictine monk of Beuron Abbey in Germany. He was a friend of Jacques and Raïssa Maritain. Jacques Maritain wrote an introduction for his book «Le Paradis Blanc» about the Carthusians of La Valsainte.
Fr. Daniel Meenan was a Jesuit priest and Editor of the «Sacred Heart Messenger», national magazine of the Apostleship of Prayer.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a optician by trade in Lexington, Kentucky, but was an avid photographer who would become influential in the art photography world for his haunting and surreal images. He first met Merton in January of 1967 on a trip from Lexington with poet Jonathan Williams and Guy Davenport (see Merton's journal entry from January 18, 1967). Meatyard took some photographs of Merton playing bongos, standing with a staff in a corn field, in his hermitage, in his habit but with a baseball cap, etc. In some of the last years of his life before dieing of cancer, he collaborating with another friend of Merton's, Kentucky author Wendell Berry. Meatyard's photographs are part of the collections at the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art, and the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.
John O. Meany was a visiting professor in the Education Department at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
Robert F. W. Meader was Director of the Shaker Museum Foundation in Old Chatham, New York.
Carey McWilliams was Editor of «The Nation» magazine from New York, as well as a liberal social critic and author of a number of books.
According to James A. Ward, the author of a biography of Merton's friend W. H. Ferry, Robert McVeigh was as a young activist at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California, where Ferry was Vice-President during the 1960's. Ward states that he became "a chiropractor and teacher of earth sciences" who "shared with Ping [W. H. Ferry] a common affection and respect for Thomas Merton and his ideas." (Ward, James A. «Ferrytale: The Career of W. H. "Ping" Ferry». CA, Stanford University Press, 2001: pp. 189-190.)
John F. McTarsney was Chairman of the Promotion Committee of Bearings for Re-Establishment (BSR), a group that helped former priests, ministers, seminarians and religious re-integrate into the workforce. Merton agreed to serve on Bearing's Board of Advisors in 1967.
Mary S. McNiff was Assistant to the Librarian of St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts.
Fr. John McNearney was a doctoral student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and was writing a dissertation called "The Relation between Prayer and Involvement in the World". He asked if Merton would send him a bibliography of his works so he could include some of it as source material.
Fr. William McNamara was a Carmelite priest writing on behalf of the Spiritual Life Institute of America (SLIA) in Sedona, Arizona. He has written on the contemplative life and founded Carmelite hermitages in the United States and Canada. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 281.)
Geraldine McNamara was a high-school student who writes to ask Merton about Trappist life.
Fr. Arthur McNally was a Passionist priest and Associate Editor of «The Sign», a national Catholic magazine.
Chris McNair was the father of Carole Denise McNair, one of the children killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. He took a picture of his daughter that was included in «Look», which Merton saved and wrote a poem about called "Picture of a Black Child with a White Doll." He captioned the photo, "Carole Denise McNair, one of the four bomb-murdered Negro children, never learned to hate." (Source: «The Road to Joy», p. 332.)
Br. Basil McMurray was a Trappist monk of Gethsemani and former novice of Thomas Merton's. He later received permission to live as a hermit at Mount Saviour Monastery in New York.
Fr. Cornelius McMenamin was a Trappist monk of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia.
Mother Mary Francis Clare McLaughlin was the Prioress of the Poor Clares of New Orleans, Louisiana. She gave Merton the "Shalom" sign for the door of his hermitage.
John F. McKinney was Recording Director of the Catholic Poetry Society of America in New York. They were the publishers of «Spirit». A recording was made of some of Merton's poetry. The poems were read by Richard Gray.
Dom Hugh McKiernan was a Trappist abbot of Our Lady of the Holy Cross Abbey, in Berryville, Virginia. He was appointed superior of Holy Cross in 1956 and was elected the first abbot of the monastery when it became an independent abbey, serving as abbot from 1958 to 1964. He later transferred his stability to Mount Saviour, a Benedictine monastery near Elmira, New York. Merton met McKiernan in October of 1968 at La Casa de Maria retreat center in Santa Barbara.
Henry A. McKervey writes to the editor of «Harper's» from Spokane, Washington, in response to "Apologies to an Unbeliever", published in the November 1966 issue of «Harper's Magazine» (and later appeared with a related article in the book Faith and Violence).
Peggy McKenna was a homemaker writing from Orange, Texas.
Mrs. Yin-dzung Djuh McIntyre writes from West Collingswood, New Jersey. Following up on Merton's interpretation of «The Way of Chuang Tzu», she asks Merton to address parallels between the Chinese mind and Christian thought.
Fr. William McInnes was a Jesuit priest and, at the time of writing, president of Fairfield University, Connecticut.
Dennis Q. McInerny was a doctoral student in the American Studies program at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He was writing his dissertation on Merton, which was published in 1969 as "Thomas Merton and Society: A Study of the Man and His Thought against the Background of Contemporary American Culture". In 1974, his book «Thomas Merton: The Man and His Work» was published.