Joe Dobson writes from Yonkers, New York.
Ernst Fromm was Director of Livraria AGIR Editóra (Artes, Gráficas, Indústrias, Reunidas, S.A. [AGIR]) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Kenneth Seeman Giniger was head of the Layman's National Bible Committee, publisher of "The Catholic Bible in the St. Peter's Edition."
Catherine Hughes seems to have been an editor at Sheed and Ward publishers.
Fr. M. Jacques was a monk of the Trappist Abbey of Cîteaux in France.
Fr. Nivard Kinsella was a Trappist monk of Mount Saint Joseph Abbey in Roscrea (Ros Cré), Ireland. (Previously filed under "Nivard, Br., O.C.S.O." and moved in 2022.)
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.)
Vladimir Mertsalov was Director of the Institut zur Erforschung der UdSSRe.V. in Munich, Germany.
Catherine Meyer was an editor for «Harper's Magazine» and writes from New York.
Mother Michael of Christ the King was a nun of the Carmel of Our Lady of the Mountains in Reno, Nevada.
Henry Miller was a highly controversial author, and some of his works were censored in the United States until the 1960's. The authors respected each others works despite their vastly different lifestyles. However, Miller, like Merton, had spent years in New York and in France and was an artist as well as author. Merton expresses a desire to read Miller's «Tropics» novels, but doubts they would get past censors at the monastery.
Dorothy Mingolello writes from Fairfield, Connecticut. She asks Merton's assistance in writing a letter to the director of Boys Town, Msr. Nicholas H. Wegner.
Stephen Mooney was a poet and professor at the University of Tennessee, Martin. He was founder and editor of the «Tennessee Poetry Journal».
Fr. Augustine Moore was a Trappist monk from Holy Spirit Abbey in Conyers, Georgia. At the time of this correspondence, he was the American Definitor in Rome. He later succeeded Robert McGann as abbot of Holy Spirit Abbey. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 56.)
Thomas Morrill was a poet writing from Tallahassee, Florida.
Virginia Naeve is the author of a proposal referencing Thomas Merton. There is no correspondence in this file; however, it quotes a message from Abbot James Fox who writes on behalf of Thomas Merton.
Brendan Nagle was from Malibu, California.
James Roy Newman wrote a number of popular books about mathematics.
S. H. Newman writes from El Paso, Texas. He had once entered the Trappists but was rejected before vows because they feared he was going blind. He spent time with the Carthusians, but was dismissed for disobedience. He did not go blind, married, and became the father of two girls. He includes a letter to his brother, Fletcher (Fletch) Newman, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey in Oregon.
Richard Nixon, then President-Elect of the United States, wrote letters to prominent individuals to ask them to suggest "exceptional individuals" for presidential appointments. Merton would have not received the letter as he was in Asia and days from his death in Bangkok.
Edward Noonan was an architect from Chicago, Illinois.
Fr. A. Nuy was a Benedictine priest of St. Willibrord's Abbey in the Netherlands.
Walter O'Connell writes from Waco, Texas.
John O'Keefe seems to have been an aspiring writer from Dublin, Ireland. He asks Merton's advice to a writer.
Ethelmary Oakland writes from Olean, New York, sending a poem of Merton's friend Robert Lax, "A Song for Our Lady Notre Dame de la Garde Marseille". (Poem not extant in file.)
Victoria Ocampo was a prolific author, essayist, biographer, publisher who became a feminist heroine challenging the limited roles of women in the Victorian world of the early twentieth century and in Argentine society. She came from a wealthy family, was well traveled and received an international education. She published the journal «Sur» ("the South"), which bridged North and South American culture and the best minds of Europe. She included Merton among the many diverse authors she published and translated. (Source: «The Courage for Truth», pp. 207-208.)
At the time of writing to Merton, Nancy Occhineri was in her senior year at Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford, Connecticut. She had just read Thomas Merton's «The Seven Storey Mountain». After leaving the area for graduate studies, she returned to Hartford and served as a teacher in the urban area for over 30 years. She remains an avid reader of Merton's work.
Patricia W. Oliver (Patricia Welsh) was reference librarian at Bellarmine College and cataloged and maintained the Thomas Merton collection in the Library. Merton and Ms. Oliver developed a friendship over meetings in the library and correspondence relating to the collection.
Beatrice Olmstead wrote to Merton after reading «The Seven Storey Mountain», and she and her family became for Merton like an adopted family.
Terence Olmstead was one of the children of Beatrice Olmstead (see "Olmstead, Beatrice" file).
Joel Orent was an ordained Jewish rabbi who writes to Merton about the possibility of exploring Buddhist and Catholic monastic traditions. He made some inquiries into living with some Catholic monastic communities. He first writes to Merton from New York, and later from Hollywood, California.
Michael Ortwein was an ex-novice of Gethsemani Abbey.
At the time of writing, Mother Mary Angela Osak was the Superior of the Redemptoristine Nuns in Keswick, Ontario, Canada.
Fr. Pachomius was a monk of Benedictine monastery of Erlach in Niederwaldkirchen, Austria.
Fr. Gustave Pairoux writes from the Desclee Company publishers to ask if Merton would write a preface to Fr. William Johnston's «The Mysticism of the Cloud of Unknowing». He writes from Rome, Italy.
Fr. Palumbo writes from Caserta, Italy.
George A. Panichas was an associate professor in the English Department of the University of Maryland in College Park at the time of writing to Merton. In addition, he was the an essayist, biographer and author of a number of books on politics, history and religion.
Philip Berrigan was a social activist and writer whose acts of civil disobedience during the Vietnam War made him a household name in the peace movement. Younger brother of Daniel Berrigan, he became a priest like his brother, but with the Josephites instead of the Jesuits. He would later marry and would be excommunicated. Throughout his life, he continued to protest nuclear proliferation in the United States and was often imprisoned for his actions.
Wendell Berry is a farmer and writer of poetry, novels, prose, and essays. He writes to Merton from Port Royal, Kentucky. Themes in his writings include concern for the land, environmental conservation, the value of work, and the culture of agricultural communities.x000D
Merton began a correspondence with Berry as he began to come of his own as a poet and author. Berry had returned to a family farm in his native Kentucky and was a professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Merton could appreciate Berry's simple life of nature and solitude on a farm and employing traditional agricultural means, both critical of the effects of modern farm machinery on rural life. Though Berry claimed that his poems could only loosely be considered haiku, Merton referred to them as such and included some in his magazine «Monks Pond». Berry shared Merton's opposition to Vietnam and knew many of Merton's friends from Lexington.
John Biram was originally from England and moved to the United States around 1960. A couple of years later, he would quit his job as a scientist and focus on writing. He wrote poems and includes one called "A Cocktail Party" with this letter to Merton. He also writes about the negative effects of technology in a book called «Teknosis», which would be published until 11 years after this correspondence (1978).
Genowefa Bogatynska writes from Poland.
Mrs. A. Boodoosingh was Foreign Rights Secretary for Darton, Longman and Todd Limited in London.
Cameron Borton is writing as Pastor of the North Congregational Church in Winchendon, Massachusetts.
Boucher was a former Carmelite.
Abbot Louis Boutoute was Vicar of Saint-Flour Cathedral in Cantal, France.
Br. Charles Brandt was writing from the Trappist monastery of Our Lady of New Melleray in Dubuque, Iowa. After leaving the Trappists he became a priest and hermit on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
Theodore Brenson was writing from New York.
Alan Brilliant was founder of Unicorn Press in Santa Barbara, California and was its Director at the time of writing. He was also married to Teo Savory, who both wrote for and assisted in the editing operations of Unicorn Press.
John B. Brown was a student at Union Theological Seminary in New York at the time of his writing to Merton (Source: «The Road to Joy», p. 369).
Fr. Gerard Bryan, a monk of Gethsemani, was completing a doctoral dissertation in Rome on St. Bernard of Clairvaux and Teilhard de Chardin. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 303).
Christoper Burke was the son of Merton's friend, Professor Herbert Burke.
Edwin Burtt was a professor at Cornell University at this time. He wrote books about the influence of philosophy and metaphysics on science. He had an influence on Aldous Huxley, and like Huxley, started writing more about eastern religions, especially Buddhism, in his later years.
Fr. Paul Bussard was Editor-in-Chief of «The Catholic Digest» and was writing from St. Paul, Minnesota.
Victor Butterfield was the Chairman of Board of Selection for the E. Harris Harbison Award for Distinguished Teaching. He writes from St. Louis, Missouri.
Marie Beuzeville Byles was one of the pioneer Buddhist scholars in Australia, publishing the book, «Footprints of Gautama the Buddha». During their correspondence, she was assaulted and severely injured by an unknown assailant, leaving her with a long period of recovery.
Bobby Byrd was a poet writing from Memphis, Tennessee. Some of his poems appear in «Monks Pond». At the time of writing, he was an out of work teacher. He spent over 40 years later in life in El Paso, Texas.
D. J. Cahill is writing from the Editorial Department of Burns and Oates publishers from London.
P. Campbell was a missionary on leave from Senegal. He writes from Kent, England.
Fr. Philip Caraman was a Jesuit priest and editor of «The Month», a magazine published by the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order) in London. The sub-editor was Fr. Deryck Hanshell, another correspondent of Merton's.
Catherine B. Carlson, daughter of Merton correspondent Dorris Carlson, wrote to Ping Ferry in 1991, sending him a copy of a Merton letter to her mother.
Dorris Carlson was a Zen scholar and married to the founder of the Xerox Corporation, Chester F. Carlson, who died later in 1968.
Bruce L. Carriker writes from Prescott College in Arizona.
Hayden Carruth is owner and operator of Crow's Mark Press in Johnson, Vermont, and has won numerous awards for poetry.
At the time of writing, John R. Peterson was an assistant professor in the College of Architecture at Arizona State University.
Robert A. Peterson writes from Chicago, Illinois.
Fr. Ian Petit was a Benedictine monk from the Saint Louis Priory in St. Louis, Missouri.
Marianne Peyre translated Merton's essay "Blessed are the Meek" into French for publication in «Cahiers de la Réconciliation», a publication related to the International Movement of Reconciliation (M.I.R.) / International Fellowship of Reconcilation (I.F.O.R.).
Andrea Pfeiffenberger writes from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. After graduation, she continued studies at the University of York in England. Merton publishes a couple of her poems in the third volume of «Monks Pond».
Bernard S. Phillips was a professor in the Department of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the time of writing.
Julián Urgoiti was head of Editorial Sudamericana publishers in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Rachel Carson was a writer on ecology and a naturalist poet. She is best known for «Silent Spring», a book that raised awareness about the harmful use of pesticides like DDT.
The Editorial Staff of the Catholic Action Federations was writing from Chicago, Illinois, and included: Peter Foote, John J. Hill, Lawrence Kelly, John McCudden, and Theodore C. Stone.
Frances Cavanaugh writes from Hempstead, New York. She describes herself as "one of the nuns in modern garb teaching on university campuses."