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.
Keating was the founder of «Ramparts» magazine in 1962 and published many articles about civil rights and the Vietnam War, as well as authoring books of these issues. (Source: Reed, Christopher. "Edward Keating" [obituary], The Guardian, ‹http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,948633,00.html›, May 3, 2003.)
Chester P. Keefe writes to ask Merton about the daily activities of a monk and the layout of Gethsemani Abbey for a senior class design project at the Rhode Island School of Design. They had decided to design a Trappist monastery.
Fred Keefe was an editor for «The New Yorker» magazine and agreed to put Merton in touch with Nat Hentoff, who wrote a piece on Lenny Bruce and Bud Powell.
Fr. J. M. Kelly was a Basilian priest and President of St. Michael's College in Toronto.
Mary Lu Kelly was project assistant to Dr. Robert F. Roeming, a French and Italian professor at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Julie Kernan was an editor for P. J. Kenedy and Sons in New York. Merton wrote an introduction for a book they were publishing, Raïssa Maritain's «Notes on the Our Father».
Fr. Kevin Bracken was a Trappist monk from Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey in Portglenone, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Edward Kikama writes from Japan.
Francis Kim writes from Taegu [Daegu], South Korea.
Brs. Harold Kohl, Brian Palmer and Erasmo Leiva were Trappists novices from the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia.
Andrew Kormos writes from Santa Ana, California.
Sr. Mary Norbert Körte was a Dominican from San Francisco, California.
Robert J. Kreyche wrote about philosophy and mysticism. He attempts to contact Merton after having spent some time with John Howard Griffin. He writes from Shawnee Mission, Kansas.
Br. Benedict Kunz was a Trappist monk from Gethsemani Abbey.
Fr. Gregory Lambing (at that time Br. Gregory) was a monk of Gethsemani Abbey.
Chanterelle Lanza del Vasto was the wife of Joseph Jean Lanza del Vasto, the founder of the Communautés de l'Arche in France.
Fr. Ernest Larkin was a Carmelite priest from Whitefirars Hall in Washington, D.C.
Fr. Benedict Lauvant was a Dominican priest writing from Toulouse, France.
Sr. Penelope Lawson was from the Anglican Community of St. Mary the Virgin in Wantage, England. She spent most of her time there as librarian at St. Mary's Convent and authored a number of books. She is also well-known for translations of early and medieval Christian writers. It was through translation of writings of Isaac of Stella that she was first in contact with Merton. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», pp. 477-478.)
Dom Jean Leclercq was a Benedictine priest, prolific writer and scholar of the history of monasticism. Born in France, he joined the Abbey of Clervaux in Luxembourg. He first came into contact with Merton concerning the history of the Trappists. Later, during the changes occurring within the Catholic Church before and after the Second Vatican Council, they carry on a crucial dialog on the role and future of monasticism.
Francis C. Lewis writes from Saint Charles Seminary in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.
Clara Libra writes from Montevideo, Uruguay.
Martin Lings (also using the nom de plume, Abu Bakr Siraj ad-Din) was a scholar from England who wrote many books on Sufism, Islam, and the mystical traditions. Inspired by the French Muslim René Guénon, he converted to Islam in the 1940's and spent over a decade in Cairo. After leaving Egypt due to political unrest in 1952, he spent much of his career at the British Library and the British Museum. Lings first writes at the suggestion of Marco Pallis, asking if Merton would review his book, «Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions». (Sources: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 453. / Eaton, Gai. "Obituary - Martin Lings: Islamic scholar concerned with spiritual crisis." The Guardian Unlimited online. 27 May 2005. Bellarmine College Library. Accessed 8 Sept. 2005. ‹http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1493343,00.html›.)
Fr. Riccardo Lombardi was a Jesuit priest writing on behalf of the Centro Internationale Pio XII per un Mondo Migliore in Rome, Italy.
Beatriz Lorca sends Merton a book by Chilean author, María Donoso entitled «Hominum Terra», hoping Merton can help to find an American publisher.
Dominic Lorenzo writes on behalf of University of Notre Dame Press in Indiana.
Jim Lowell writes from the Asphodel Book Shop in Cleveland, Ohio. He writes to obtain copies of Merton's small press literary magazine, «Monks Pond». Merton does not plan to sell the magazine and will certainly give him copies that Lowell can sell, but suggests that if Lowell wants to trade, there are a couple of books he would like Lowell to send him (Franz Fanon's «Black Skin, White Masks» and Herbert Mancuse's «One Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society «).
Fr. Lucas was a priest of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate living in India. He writes to Merton asking that he write a biography of Kuriakose Elias Chavara, the co-founder of Lucas' order whom they were advocating a cause for sainthood. Chavara was beatified in 1986.
From a humble beginning in New York, Clare Boothe Luce rose to prominent and varied careers, including an advocate for the women's movement, managing editor of «Vanity Fair», a satirist and playwright, «Life» magazine correspondent in Europe during World War II, Republican legislator in the U.S. House of Representatives for Connecticut, and ambassador to Italy. She was known for her scathing wit. Her husband after a remarriage was Henry R. Luce, who was president of Time magazine, and his death in 1964 allowed her to retire to Hawaii, but she remained active in Republican politics. She converted to Catholicism in 1944 after the death of her only daughter. Henry Luce donated the land that made Mepkin Abbey possible in Conyers, Georgia. Clare Boothe Luce writes to Merton in 1948 to thank him for his books. (Source: "Luce, Clare Boothe." World Authors 1900-1950 (1996). Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 16 September 2005. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
The author of this letter, signing Luke, seems to either be a novice or a brother of Gethsemani Abbey at the time of writing to Merton.
Fr. Luke was a monk of Genesee Abbey in Piffard, New York.
Sr. Mary Madeleva, born Mary Evaline Wolff, was a Sister of the Holy Cross who served as long time president of Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana. She is also known as a poet and literary critic. She shared with Merton a love of medieval Christian mysticism. In his letter, Merton specifically praises Julian of Norwich. By the first extant letter in 1953, Merton and Sr. Madeleva had seemed to have already written letters to each other. (Source: "Madeleva, Mary." World Authors." 1996. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 2 Nov. 2005. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
James Edmund Magner Jr. was a poet and professor at John Carroll University in Ohio. He grew up in New York. In his early years, he helped underprivileged children, taught boxing and worked at a newspaper before serving in the United States Infantry from 1948-1951. After suffering a wounded knee in the Korean War, he returned to the United States and spent time at monasteries in New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut. He was a Passionist seminarian for five years before leaving to earning a degree at the University of Pittsburgh. He continued his graduate work at Pittsburgh, earning his doctorate in 1966. He has published eight volumes of poetry. (Source: "James Magner Jr. Collection." Website of the Ohio University Library Archives and Special Collections. Accessed 3 Nov. 2005. ‹http://www.library.ohiou.edu/libinfo/depts/archives/mss/mss062.htm›.)
Bishop Charles G. Maloney was Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky, at the time of writing to Merton.
Fr. George A. Maloney is a Jesuit priest of the Russian Byzantine Rite and the founder of the John XXIII Center for Eastern Christian Studies at Fordham University in New York, where he taught patristics and Eastern theology. He writes on behalf of «Diakonia», a quarterly journal that promoted dialogue between Catholic and Orthodox Christians, asking that Merton submit something for publication.
Josefina Manresa writes on behalf of Aguilar publishers in Madrid, Spain.
Abbess Marie of the Assumption Marie of the Assumption was of the Portiuncula Monastery of the Holy Trinity, Poor Clares-Colettines, in Mwanza, Tanzania. She writes to the Mother Abbess of the Monastery of Saint Clare in Lowell, Massachusetts (who likely forwarded her letter to Merton).
Sr. Marie-Aurelie is writing from the Monastery of the Precious Blood in Hamilton, Ontario. According to Sr. Marie-Aurelie's first letter, the Sisters Adorers of the Precious Blood were the first contemplative order in Canada, founded in 1861 in St. Hyacinth, Quebec.
Sr. Marie-Pascal was a Daughter of Mary serving at the Ecole Notre Dame du Perpetuel Secours in Port au Prince, Haiti.
Fr. Martin Oliver was a Dominican priest from France writing about Fr. Etienne Vayssière and the worker-priest movement.
Frederick R. Martin was Managing Editor of the publishing house New Directions. He writes from New York.
Fr. Angel Martinez was a Jesuit priest and poet from Nicaragua. He has published a number of books of poetry. Merton heard of Martinez through José Coronel Urtecho. (Source: «The Courage for Truth», pp. 206.)
Louis Massignon was a French scholar who wrote some of the most influential works on Islamic studies of the 20th century. Massignon had an especially keen interest in the Sufi mystic of ninth century Baghdad, Hallaj (Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj). Based on his idea of "substitution mystique", accepting the sufferings of others, and the similar idea of «badal» by Hallaj, he received approval from Rome to form the sodality of the Badaliya in 1947. (The movement had its roots from a vow taken in 1934 with his friend, Mary Kahil.) He was later granted permission by Pope Pius XII in 1950 to become a married priest of the Melkite rite. Merton was introduced to him by Herbert Mason. Massignon later introduced a Pakistani friend and Sufi scholar, Abdul Aziz, to Merton's work, and Aziz and Merton thenceforth correspondence. Massignon wrote to Merton of his concerns about the racial tensions in France concerning the immigration of north African Muslims and about the after-effects of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and the consequences for peace between Israeli's and Palestinians. Massignon's combination of a love of mysticism with an outspoken nature about the world's problems might have influenced Merton. (Source: «Witness to Freedom», pp. 275-276.)
James F. Mathias writes as Secretary for the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York. He writes on behalf of a request by Clayton Eshleman for a Guggenheim grant award.
Olga Elena Mattei is a poet living in Medellin, Colombia. She was born in Puerto Rico and often wrote concerning social justice. Merton was a fan of her work.
Lilian May from Brazil sends Merton some books by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.
Rollo May was the author of a number of books on existential psychology. Before earning he doctoral degree from Columbia University in 1949, he tried different disciplines, including studying at Union Theological Seminary with Paul Tillich. He was influenced both by existentialist writers and philosophers like Sören Kierkegaard and psychologists like Erich Fromm. May writes from New York. (Source: "May, Rollo." World Authors 1985-1990 (1995). Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 12 Dec. 2005. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
Lisa M. Mayer was secretary to Helen Wolff of Harcourt, Brace and World in New York.
Pawel Mayewski was Editor of the quarterly on culture, «Tematy». He writes from New York.
John H. McCallum worked for Harcourt Brace publishers in New York.
Colman McCarthy was a former monk of Holy Spirit Abbey in Conyers, Georgia. He left and became a columnist, writing for «The Washington Post» and others. He writes to Merton from the federal government's Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C. A pacifist and animal rights activist, he has now devoted his life to peace education and writing books on this subject.
Fr. Barry McDermott was with the Newman Foundation at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois.
Donald McDonald writes of behalf of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California.
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.
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.
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.
Fr. James J. Megivern was Vincentian priest from St. John's University in New York.
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).
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).
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.)
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 L. Strong writes from Landover Hills, Maryland.
Fr. August Thompson was an African-American priest who was serving at St. Charles Church in Ferriday, Louisiana, at the time of writing to Merton. He was interviewed by John Howard Griffin for an article for «Ramparts» magazine about the experience of being a black Catholic priest and the effects of racism on the Catholic Church. He ran into some trouble with his bishop, Charles Pasquale Greco, of Alexandria, Louisiana. The bishop disputed many claims of institutional racism by Thompson, and was even angrier that the Church was given a bad image publicly on this issue. Thompson met Merton in 1963 and corresponded with him for a number of years.
Karen Apple wrote was a 16-year-old student at a Catholic high school. She writes from Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Fr. Vitus Bucher, O.S.B. (Edmund Bucher) was a Benedictine monk of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota.
Adrian Cunningham died at age 69 in March 2012. He spent the greatest part of his professional career at the University of Lancaster, helping to found the Department of Religious Studies in 1967. Merton writes to him in London. At the time, he was a student at Cambridge. He was involved in Catholic attempts to promote non-violence and to resist nuclear arms proliferation. He later was a co-founder the controversial publication «Slant», which attempted to reconcile Marxism and Catholic thought. (Sources: «Subtext» [Lancaster, UK]: #88, 22 March 2012 ‹www.lancaster.ac.uk/subtext/archive/issue088.htm›, accessed 14 March 2014; and " Once again, farewell," «The Tablet»: 24 March 2012, p. 19 ‹archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/24th-march-2012/19/once-again-farewell, accessed 14 March 2014›.)
Cecil B. DeMille was a filmmaker best known for his biblical epic, «The Ten Commandments».
Terrell Dickey was a commercial artist from Louisville, Kentucky. The Abbey of Gethsemani hired Dickey to assist with the layout of books and pamphlets produced by the monastery on Gethsemani and the Trappist life. Merton first records in his journal a meeting with Dickey about a postulant's pamphlet on September 10, 1957. He also consults with Dickey about Merton's proposed book on art, Art and Worship, which was not published.
Anne Diekan writes to Merton from Manassas, Virginia.
Roger Hubank was a student at Cambridge University, where Merton spent his first year of college. He is a Catholic who asks about the relationship of Catholic authority and censorship in relation to authors, especially Catholic authors. He also questions some of Merton's criticism of D.H. Lawrence in «Elected Silence» and «The Sign of Jonas».
Daryl or Daryll Keene seems to be a woman from California that Merton references in some journal entries in early March of 1968. She came visiting the monastery, had a discussion with Merton, and wanted to relocate to the area and involve him in a project. Merton refused this offer and notes that she had moved on to Louisville or Dayton.