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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.)

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.)

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.)

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.

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.

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.)

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.)

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 was a retired Baptist professor who was teaching church history 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. Later in life, he was a visiting professor at Baptist Seminary of Kentucky in Lexington, Lexington Theological Seminary, Bellarmine University, and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

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.

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.)

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.

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."

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.

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.)

Living in Karachi, Pakistan, Abdul Aziz can be attributed with sparking Merton's first interest in Sufism, an interest later shared with his novices at Gethsemani. Beginning their correspondence in late 1960, Merton and Aziz would exchange books and ideas. Aziz was introduced to Merton's work through Louis Massignon, a mutual friend. An important insight from these letters is Merton's response to Aziz's request for a description of his prayer life.

James Thomas Baker, at the time of writing, was a graduate student in humanities at Florida State University. He was writing an interdisciplinary dissertation about Merton in literature, the arts, and religion (see "Related Information" below). Baker first came to know of Merton's writings while a student of Glenn Hinson at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.