Waddell Austin was Managing Editor of Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards in Solana Beach, California, at the time of this correspondence.
John Bagguley and Cecil Woolf were editors of the book «Authors Take Sides on Vietnam». The book asked a range of authors to address the following questions: "Are you for, or against, the intervention of the United States in Vietnam?"; and "How, in your opinion, should the conflict in Vietnam be resolved?". Other authors in the volume included: W. H. Auden; William F. Buckley, Jr.; William S. Burroughs; Lawrence Ferlinghetti; and Allen Ginsberg. The book was modeled after «Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War», published in 1937, and compiled by Nancy Cunard. Woolf and Bagguley write to Merton from London.
Anthony L. Bannon was an editorial staff writer for «Magnificat», the newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, New York.
Sr. Mary Baptist is writing from the Incarnate Word Convent in Bellaire, Texas.
Sr. Mary Barbara is writing from St. Francis College in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
At the time of correspondence with Merton, Jacques Barzun was serving as Provost of Merton's alma mater, Columbia University. In a letter to the Merton Center in 1971, Barzun mentions that Merton was a friend and one-time student.
Fr. Jean Marie Beaurin is writing on behalf of Les Croisés de Notre Dame in Paris.
Lee Archer Belford is writing from the School of Education at New York University.
Fr. Benedict is a Trappist monk from the Abbey of Our Lady of New Melleray in Dubuque, Iowa.
Leilani Bentley, at the time of writing, was composing a freshman English class paper on a comparison between Merton and Dag Hammarskjold on the topic of contemplation and peace. He writes from Mulliken, Michigan.
Marina de Berg was a dancer and an actress in Paris. Born in Helsinki, Finland to parents of French and Russian orgin, she was orphaned at a young age. She achieved fame early in life as a ballerina and dancer and then as an actress primarily in the latter half of the 1940's. In the early 1950's and some professional setbacks, she questioned her place in the what she called the "wild frivolities" of life in the arts in Paris at the time. She recounts her decision to try a religious vocation with the Trappistine nuns in an autobiographical work, Trois ans à la Trappe in 1959 (translated into English as Heaven by the Hems: From Stage to Cloister, published by Sheed and Ward in 1961). She entered the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Joseph d'Ubexy, Charmes, France, in August of 1952. After a period of ill health and struggle with the rigors of the lifestyle, she left the nuns and began writing.
Hedy Bergida is writing as Senior Editor of Hawthorn Books of New York.
Berval is writing on behalf of «France-Asie: Biligual Review of Asian Culture and Problems».
Miss Biegansho is writing from Poland.
Hector Black is writing on behalf of Plough Publishing House. It was affiliated with the Society of Brothers, a Bruderhof Community, in Farmington, Pennsylvania.
Judy Blanchard desired to become a hermit sought the help of Dom Jacques Winandy, a hermit from Canada, whom Merton had recommended to her.
Sr. Bogdana is writing from the Congregation of the Sacred Heart in Krakow, Poland.
Paul Hyde Bonner's letterhead states he is writing from "The Teacherage" in Summerville, South Carolina.
Fr. Maurice Boscher is writing from Tahiti.
Russell Bourne was an editor working for Time-Life Books in New York. He follows up Abraham Heschel's inquiry about writing an essay for the Time-Life Illustrated and Annotated Bible.
Fr. Bousquet is writing from Nice, France.
Alda Lee Boyd was Publicity Director for the Seabury Press in 1967.
Mrs. Pauline B. Boyd is writing from St. Charles, Missouri.
Mother Benedicta Brennan was writing from Monroe, Michigan, a Sister Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Sr. Bridget was an Anglican religious writing Merton from the Convent of St. Helena in Versailles, Kentucky. By her 1973 correspondence with the Merton Center, she was with the Convent of the Incarnation (Community of the Sisters of the Love of God) in Oxford, England.
Besmilr Brigham was born in Pace, Mississippi in 1923. Although spending much in her life traveling to places such as France, Central America, and Mexico, she was living in Horatio, Arkansas, the home of her parents, at the time of correspondence with Merton. She now lives with her daughter and son-in-law, the poet Keith Wilson, in New Mexico. In 1971, she published the book «Heaved from the Earth». Merton had many good things to say about another book she was attempting to publish at the time of writing entitled «The Tiger» (Source: The United States of Poetry website, a program produced by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting [http://www.worldofpoetry.org/usop/word.htm]).
Terry F. Brock was the Editor of the «Catholic Book Annual», published by the Thomas More Association.
John Pairman Brown was Professor of Christian Ethics and New Testament at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California. He was a member of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship and an author.
Jane Browne was the Assistant Managing Editor of Hawthorn Books in New York and a friend of another Merton correspondent, Anne Perkins.
Frank Bruce was head of the Bruce Publishing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
The Western Union Telegram from "A BRYAN" was sent from Clayton, Missouri.
Fr. R. Bùi-bàng-Hiên was writing from Saigon, South Vietnam.
At the time of writing, Br. Gabriel Bunge was a Benedictine monk of Chevetogne Abbey, a monastery known for seeking reconciliation between Western and Eastern Christianity. He was later ordained as a monk, lived as a hermit in Swiss mountains from the 1980's, and was received into the Orthodox Church as a monk in 2010.
Professor Herbert Burke was teaching English at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.
Dan Burns was writing from Boystown in Miami, Florida.
Suzanne Butorovich was a high school student from Campbell, California. This is one of the longest know series of correspondence he had with a young person. Merton had dinner with her and her family while visiting California on October 3, 1968.
Grace Byrne writes from the offices of Curtis Brown publishers in New York.
Esther de Cáceres was a poet from Uruguay, whose poetry has been described as both modernist and mystical.
Merton writes to Roger Caillois, who was in Buenos Aires at t he time of writing.
Sr. Annice Callahan corresponded with Merton about the instruction of novices given the changes to religious life in the 1960's. She would later, in 1984, teach a course on Thomas Merton. She writes from the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany, New York.
Angus Cameron is writing on behalf of Alfred A. Knopf publishers from New York.
In 1960, Monsignor Loris Capovilla (later an archbishop) served as a secretary to Pope John XXIII and writes from Vatican City. He sent a stole worn by John XXIII upon becoming Pope as a gift to Merton through Capovilla's friend Dr. Barbato in 1960.
Barrie Peterson writes Merton from Princeton Theological Seminary about the idea of forming a "'radical Community' or commune".
Fr. Callistus Peterson was a Trappist monk, originally from Gethsemani Abbey. In the early letters, he was studying in Rome. Later, he was sent to the Trappist foundation in Las Condes, Chile.
Valerio Cardinal Valeri was Prefect of the Roman Curia's Congregation of the Affairs of Religious, currently known as the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. He writes from the Vatican.
Sr. Mary Catherine was with the Sister Adorers of the Precious Blood at the Monastery Precious Blood - Mount St. Agnes, in Peterborough, Ontario.
Fr. Patrick Catry was a Trappist monk writing on behalf of the «Bulletin de Spiritualité Monastique», which appeared in «Collectanea Cisterciensia». He writes Merton from the Abbey of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont in Godewaersvelde (Mont des Cats), France.
Sr. Cecilia was a Trappist nun of Redwoods Monastery in California and was secretary to Mother Myriam Dardenne.
Hervé Chaigne was writing on behalf of the bi-monthly publication «Fréres du Monde» from Bordeaux, France.
Born in India, Dr. Amiya Chakravarty was a well-traveled scholar and professor of philosophy and religion who had the opportunity to meet many great people of his time, including Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indian poet Dr. Rabindranath Tagore, Albert Schweitzer, Boris Pasternak, Albert Einstein, and met Merton during his Asian journey. While in correspondence with Merton, he held professorships at Boston University, Smith College and later the State University of New York at New Paltz. In addition, he served as a delegate to the United Nations for India (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», pp. 112).
Charles Luc Chambost writes from Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, Var département, France.
M. R. Chandler wrote for the San Francisco Examiner.
Sr. Marie de la Redemption Chantal was a Carmelite nun writing from La Tronche, France.
Msgr. Josiah George Chatham was a priest from Jackson, Mississippi, who had known Merton since their meeting at Gethsemani in 1940. They became friends and discussed Chatham's opposition to the war, his protests of nuclear weapons, and his support of Civil Rights in the South.
Fr. Serge Choupner writes from the Monastery of the Franciscan Fathers in Rennes, France.
Christine Bochen describes Napoleón Chow as "belong[ing] to the circle of Nicaraguan poets that included Ernesto Cardenal, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, Angel Martinez, José Coronel Urtecho, and others" (Source: «The Courage for Truth», pp. 167).
Marie Therese Christie writes from London.
Br. Chrysostom was a monk of Gethsemani at the time of writing.
Fr. Basilio Colasito was a Benedictine monk writing from Montserrat Abbey in Manila, Philippines.
Fr. Brendan Connolly was Director of Libraries for Boston College at the time of correspondence.
Séamus Cooney was a professor at the Indiana University Department of English in 1968.
Miss Cuccia seems to be from New York from a geographical reference Merton makes in the letter.