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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.

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.

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.)

Archimandrite Basil Kazan was pastor of St. Michael's Eastern Orthodox Church in Louisville, Kentucky, at the time of writing. Kazan was a composer of sacred music. He visited Merton at Gethsemani, and Merton told him that he planned to write an articles about Kazan's music for the Catholic magazine «Jubilee».

Theodore J. Kavouras writes from Cleveland, Ohio.

Fr. Bernard Kaul was a Cistercian monk writing from Hauterive Abbey, Switzerland.

L. Lauffmann writes from Bruay en Artois, France.

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.

William A. Katz is a professor at the State University of New York at Albany in the Library Science department (now the School of Information Science and Policy). He was compiling an annotated list of periodicals and asked Merton's help with small press periodicals.

Sr. Kassiani writes from a Greek Orthodox convent in Jerusalem.

Lorraine Karpowich was Editor-in-chief of the 1964 issues of «Blueprint», a quarterly publication of the National Honor Society of the Academy of the Holy Angels, Fort Lee, New Jersey.

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».

Robert Kaiser was a journalist for Time Incorporated and was assigned to Rome for the Second Vatican Council. Personal matters forced him to leave this assignment, but he was planning to write a novel about events associated with the Council. He was trying to arrange a time to visit Merton at Gethsemani in the fall of 1965. In 1968, Kaiser writes on behalf of the National Association of Laymen who were arranging speakers to tour the country and speak on progressive issues concerning the Catholic Church.

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.

On later letters to Merton, Frank Kacmarcik's letterhead stated he was an "artist, designer, consultant in the sacred arts". After a few years of corresponding with Merton, Kacmarcik and his friend Bob Rambusch visit Gethsemani in October of 1960. Merton notes in his personal journal of being "a little suspicious of the intense activation and restlessness of some of these liturgical enthusiasts", although noting he has "[n]othing against liturgy" (personal journals, 1960/10/16). Kacmarcik became a Benedictine novice at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, in 1940, but left the order and became an assistant chaplain in World War II. After the war, he stayed in Paris and studied at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière and the Centre d'Art Sacré. In 1950, he came back to the United States teaching art for a few years at St. John's University in Collegeville. He did book design and was the longtime artistic director for «Worship» magazine and was a graphic artist for Liturgical Press. He collaborated with Hungarian Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer. St. John's welcomed him back to their community in 1988 as a claustral oblate, where he remained until his death in 2004.

Sr. M. Justina writes Merton's abbot, Dom James Fox, from Joliet, Illinois. The letter concerned Mother Berchmans, of whom Merton wrote in «Exile Ends in Glory», so Dom James likely passed the letter on to him.

Alfonso Junco was a Mexican poet who sends Merton a biography and list of published poetry. He knew Merton's friend Ernesto Cardenal, who was in Mexico at that time, and who gave Junco some of Merton's poetry translated into Spanish.

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.

At the time of this correspondence, William Jovanovich was writing from New York as President of Harcourt, Brace and World.

Sr. Marie Josèphe was a Benedictine nun of Saint Louis du Temple Abbey in France.

Sr. Maria José de Jesus was a Carmelite nun of the Convent of St. Teresa in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Jorgensen compares Merton to C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Fr. Placid Jordan was a Benedictine monk of Beuron Abbey in Germany. He had quite a storied past as a journalist. A convert to Catholicism in 1924, Max Jordan was one of the pioneering news reporters for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in the United States. He broke many of the stories concerning Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany in the 1930's and followed the anti-Hitler underground through the duration of World War II. Based on his experiences of the war, Jordan wrote the book «Beyond All Fronts: A Bystander's Notes on This Thirty Years War». After the war, as many of his colleagues rose to prominence, Jordan joined a Swiss congregation of Benedictines at Beuron Abbey in Germany in the year 1954. He took the name Placid. He would again don a journalistic role in covering the Second Vatican Council, working for the news service of the National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC). (Sources: McLeod, Elizabeth. "Max Jordan -- NBC's Forgotten Pioneer". Broadcasting History Resources website. 1998. ‹http://www.midcoast.com/~lizmcl/jordan.html›, accessed 2005/05/06. See also student newspaper clipping in correspondence folder of 1962/01/16.)

Lindsay Jones writes from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She may have had class with Amiya Chakravarty, who put two other Smith students in contact with Merton, Diana Eck and Janice Wilson.

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."

Frank Jones owned property along the northern California coast at Bear Harbor. While visiting Redwoods Abbey in the spring of 1968, Merton met him and his wife and inquired about land for a new hermitage. By September, Jones agreed he was interested in selling; however, by that time, Merton was considering hermitage locations in Asia.

Fr. William Johnston is an Irish Jesuit and scholar in the realm of mysticism and the East-West dialog. Since 1951, he has lived in Japan and was a professor at Sophia University in Tokyo while writing to Merton. Since 1967, he has written a number of books on mysticism and the Christian encounter with Zen.

Ronald Johnson was a poet and common friend of Merton's with poet Jonathan Williams. Merton sent Johnson one of his drawings and Johnson sent Merton some of his poems, including his book «The Green Man».

Margaret Johnson was Program Assistant for the Danforth Foundation, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. She was acknowledging Merton's recommendation for the E. Harris Harbison Award for Distinguished Teaching. Merton recommended Bellarmine College professor John H. (Jack) Ford.

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.

Poet Halvard Johnson was born in Newburgh, New York, and spent his boyhood in both in small Hudson Valley towns and New York. He spent his years after college in Ohio hitchhiking around the United States in the late 1950's. After graduate study in English at University of Chicago, he began teaching at the University of Texas, El Paso for four years. Near the end of his time in Texas, he sent Merton some poems for «Monks Pond». After this, he taught in Puerto Rico, traveled Europe, and now has returned to his native New York where he writes and teaches at the New School. A number of his books of poetry have been published. (Source: Monks Pond, pp. 109 and 207.)

George Johnson was on the Catholic Worker staff. He visited Gethsemani in late February 1962 with Jim Forest and others. Merton mentions this meeting in his journal entry of March 2, 1962.

Mrs. Edward M. Johnson writes from Worcester, Massachusetts.

Italian-born Angelo Guiseppe Cardinal Roncalli was elected pope in 1958 taking the name Pope John XXIII. Seen as a transitory pope because he was in his late seventies, he initiated the Second Vatican Council, ushering in the most sweeping changes to the Roman Catholic Church in centuries. In 1960, he sent Merton one of his stoles and a signed photograph. Merton wrote a letter concerning the threat of nuclear war, the war machine in the United States, and Merton's support for the peace movement. Pope John's secretary Monsignor Capovilla expressed that the Holy Father was "impressed" by the letter and pleased by his writings on peace and dialog with Protestants. Bl. Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was beatified in 2000. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 481.)

Sr. John Maureen writes from Medford, Oregon.

Br. Jerome was a Xaverian brother and part of a community that administered and taught at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky. He asks Merton for guidance in providing direction to a gifted but troubled young member of the community.

Harold Brewster Jenkins was Merton's uncle on his mother's side. He married Elsie Hauck Holahan in 1938. (See "Jenkins, Elsie" for a more complete description).

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.)

Dom Claude Jean-Nesmy was a Benedictine monk of La Pierre-Qui-Vire Abbey in Yonne, France. He inquires about publishing some selections from Merton's writings in translation in French in the monastery's journal, «Temoignages». He is also interested in translating more of Merton's work into French.

The Rev. Elbert Jean was a member of the Committee of Southern Churchmen and a friend of Will Campbell. He recommends that Merton collaborate with the group. He was an advocate for the poor and worked in support of the Civil Rights Movement for African Americans. Rev. Jean wrote to Merton from Franklin, Tennessee.

Maria Cooper Janis is daughter of actor Gary Cooper. Janis is a painter, is interested in parapsychology, and has recently written a book about her father and his life off camera. A letter she had sent the year of her father's death is not extant, but there is a copy of Merton's reply. He relates having enjoyed watching Cooper movies before entering the monastery and jokes, "I even had a temptation to hope that if the Seven Storey Mountain became a film, he would play in it. This was a clear case of vanity on my part!!"

Although not mentioned directly in the correspondence, Sr. Janet was likely a Sister of Mercy. The verson of Merton's letter to her addresses it to "Sister M. Janet / Holy Innocents Convent" in Brooklyn, New York.

Stephen James was founder and President of the Peace Hostage Exchange Foundation, headquartered in New York. The idea was to send delegations from the United States to strategic targets in the Soviet Union and vice versa. The hope was to get some prominent individuals, like Merton or Robert Kennedy, to go over and to get Premier Krushchev's family and others to come here in exchange.

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.

Br. James was a Trappist monk of Gethsemani.

Marianne Jahn writes from New York.

Nell L. Jaffe was Assistant to the Director of the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio.

Fr. M. Jacques was a monk of the Trappist Abbey of Cîteaux in France.

H. L. Jacobson was Director of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) International Trade Centre, publishers of «International Trade FORUM». He writes from Geneva, Switzerland.