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Erling A. Thunberg was Coordinating Director for the International Center for Integrative Studies (ICIS). He writes from New York.

Winifred Tjaden writes from London, England.

Sr. Mary Luke Tobin was former Superior General of the Sisters of Loretto. She writes from the Loretto Motherhouse in Nerinx, Kentucky. Sr. Mary Luke was the only American woman who served as an observer to the Second Vatican Council.

João Camilo de Oliveira Torres writes from Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Gwynedd Fanny Merton Trier (Aunt Gwyn) was the oldest sister of Thomas Merton's father, Owen Merton. She married Erwin Julian Trier in 1915 and moved to England. At the time of writing to Merton in the 1960's, she was living in Fairlawn, West Horsley. Merton used to see her during his breaks from school while attending the nearby Ripley Court. (Source: «The Road to Joy», p. 78.)

Tashi Tshering was a student from University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. He was a Tibetan and sent Merton the book «Tibet's Great Yogi Milarepa», edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. Tashi Tshering worked at University of Washington's Tibetan Research Project. He met Merton through a visit to Gethsemani in 1961 and later wrote a letter.

Raymond Tyner was editor of the «Green River Review» (originally to be entitled the «Kentucky Review» until duplicate title discovered). He writes from Owensboro, Kentucky.

Francisco Valle was a surrealist poet born in Nicaragua. He sends Merton an inscribed copy of one of his books.

Mrs. A. Van Horn writes from Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Fr. Venard was a Carmelite priest from a monastery in Austria.

Fr. P.M. Vidal, was a priest and member of the Third Order of Dominicans of the Couvent des Dominicaines de Béthanie at Saint-Morillon, Gironde, France.

Madeleine Viénot writes from Paris, France.

Fr. Joachim Viens was a Trappist monk of St. Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado.

Alejandro Vignati was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the time of writing to Merton, he was in Lima, Peru. He was a poet, critic and co-authored a Peruvian screenplay. He wrote a study on author Henry Miller as well.

Cintio Vitier is a poet, anthologist and literary critic from Havana, Cuba. His early poetry was influenced by the Spanish Nobel laureate Juan Ramón Jiménez. In the late 1950's and 1960's, the Cuban Revolution changed his style. Vitier later credited Merton with giving him spiritual and political guidance during the 1960's. (Source: «The Courage for Truth», p. 235.)

Vladimír Vyhlídka was was from Czechoslovakia. He studied for the priesthood in Rome, returned to Czechoslovakia, and later was made a monsignor. He died in Prague, Czech Republic, in 2011.

C. Anthony has served as president and a corporate director of a number of companies after beginning a career in advertising. He is also a board member of many charities. Having studied journalism in college, he continues to writes books, articles and recurring columns.

Fr. V. Walgrave was a Dominican priest from Ghent, Belgium. He often traveled to the United States to preach at retreats and was at the Dominican Motherhouse of St. Mary of the Springs in Columbus, Ohio, at the time of writing to Merton.

Gerald Walker writes from New York.

Susan E. Walker was secretary to Dr. J. Edward Dirks of Yale University Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut.

Richard J. Walsh was Director of Television for the National Council of Catholic Men in New York.

Fr. Walter was a Dominican priest from Australia.

E. I. Watkin was an Oxford-educated scholar, philosopher, prolific writer, linguist and translator who was proficient in French, Italian, Spanish and German. He was born a Protestant, moved to the Anglo-Catholics in his teenage years, and became Roman Catholic in 1908. He was concerned about the rise of secularism, but believed in taking Catholicism beyond its surface teachings to profound philosophical and mystical ends. He sometimes ran into trouble with church authority in his approach.

Fr. Joseph Raymond Watt was a former monk of Gethsemani Abbey under the religious name of Fr. Marion during the 1950's. At some point he left the monastery for parish life and spent many years in the Monterey Diocese in California. After he died, he was cremated and his ashes were returned to Gethsemani Abbey. (Source: "The Rev. Joseph Watt". Obituaries section of the Santa Cruz Sentinal Online. 16 Aug. 2002. Accessed 31 Aug. 2006 at the Bellarmine University Library. ‹http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2002/August/16/obit/obit.htm›.)

Dorothy Wayman was a journalist and author. Born in California, she came east for her higher education, graduating from the Boston School of Social Work in 1914. After travel to Japan, which became the subject of a book under the pseudonym Theodate Geoffrey, she returned to the Boston area. While corresponding with Merton she was a staff reporter for the «Boston Globe». (Source: "The American Catholic Who's Who." Volume 14: 1960-61. Grosse Pointe, MI: Walter Romig Publisher; p. 471.)

Rembert Weakland was a Benedictine monk and former Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation, starting his first term in 1967, the year before meeting Merton in Thailand. He served as Archbishop of Milwaukee from 1977-2002.

Portia Webster was a postulant for Redwoods Monastery in California when Merton met her during his travels on the west coast. At the time, she was working at a JC Penney store in San Francisco. She was one of the people to help show him around San Francisco in his last days before leaving for Asia. She now lives as a lay hermit artist at a monastery in Arizona.

Ron Webster writes from Spokane, Washington.

Frances "Tootie" Wesselmann was married to Robert G. Wesselmann.

Fred D. Wieck was an editor from Harper and Row in New York.

John Wilkins was an editor who writes first from the magazine «Frontier» and then from the Catholic magazine, «The Tablet» of London, England.

Thomas Williams was formerly a novice of Gethsemani. Merton writes to him in 1964, after he had recently left the monastery.

Brian Wilson writes from Seoul, South Korea. Like Merton, he was an alumnus of Columbia University. He read «Seven Storey Mountain» in 1955 and was a fan of many of Merton's other books. After completing a Master's degree in anthropology from Stanford University in 1959, he took a job teaching English at the Foreign Language College of Korea. Appalled by conditions in the country, especially the plight of children, he began work to help Korean children.

J. F. Yañez writes from Universitas, a company of literary agents from Barcelona, Spain.

Alfred F. Young was a history professor at Northwestern University. He co-signs the letter with another history professor, Christopher Lasch, of Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois.

Peggy Young writes on behalf of Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, in New York.

June Yungblut is a Quaker and scholar with graduate degrees from Yale and Emory. Her ancestry with the Society of Friends (Quakers) dates back to Thomas Fitzwater, who came to America aboard the Welcome alongside William Penn. At the time of writing to Merton, she was co-director of the Quaker House in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband John Yungblut. She and her husband were involved in the Civil Rights Movement and were friends of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. June Yungblut attempted to arrange a retreat for Martin Luther King, Jr. at Gethsemani Abbey; however, King was not able to come because of the situation in Memphis which culminated in his assassination. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 635.)

Willy Eurlings is chairperson of the Mertonvrienden, the Dutch-speaking Merton Society from Flanders and the Netherlands.