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Fr. Paul Bourne was the head censor (now called "reader") of the Cistercian Order and needed to approve of Merton's writings before he received the «Imprimi Potest», or permission to publish, from his Order and the Church. He was more considerably more friendly with Merton and more lenient of his works than other censors. Fr. Paul was at Our Lady of the Holy Ghost Abbey (now called the Monastery of the Holy Spirit) in Conyers, Georgia. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 168.)

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.

Abbot Louis Boutoute was Vicar of Saint-Flour Cathedral in Cantal, France.

Fr. Charles Bowers was at the Chaplain's Residence of Lidcombe Hospital in Lidcombe, Australia at the time of writing.

Mrs. R. M. Bowman writes from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Alda Lee Boyd was Publicity Director for the Seabury Press in 1967.

Mrs. Pauline B. Boyd is writing from St. Charles, Missouri.

Tony Boyd was a seventh-grader writing from Ashland, Kentucky.

Fr. Kevin Bracken was a Trappist monk from Our Lady of Bethlehem Abbey in Portglenone, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

The following memorial for Mahanambrata Brahmachari was written after his death in 1999 by Francis X. Clooney, SJ: Bankim Dasgupta was born in 1904 in Bengal (in a part of India that is now in Bangladesh). In 1925 he was initiated in the Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition, founded by Sri Caitanya in the fifteenth century, specifically into a sect (the Mahanam Sampradaya) that focused on the power of God’s name, ‘Hari, Krishna’, and at this point took his familiar name Mahanambrata Brahmachari (which might be translated, ‘the monk whose dedication is entirely to the "great name"’). (Source: Clooney, Francis X., S.J. "In Memoriam: Mahanambrata Brahmachari [25 December 1904–18 October 1999]". The Merton Annual, No. 13 [October 2000]: 123-126.)

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.

Barbara Ann Braveman was Assistant Editor for «Freelance» in Clayton (St. Louis), Missouri, at the time of writing.

Nancy Fly Bredenberg was a student attending Vassar College in New York. She asked Merton for some advice on a class paper she was writing.

Marquita Breit retired as director of the library of Bellarmine University having served as a librarian for the college. She co-produced bibliographies of Thomas Merton’s primary and secondary sources.

Bishop Joseph Breitenbeck was serving as the Archdiocese of Detroit at the time of this correspondence.

Mother Benedicta Brennan was writing from Monroe, Michigan, a Sister Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Theodore Brenson was writing from New York.

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]).

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.

Dick Britton writes from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Terry F. Brock was the Editor of the «Catholic Book Annual», published by the Thomas More Association.

Dr. Louis J. Broussard was a consulting psychologist from San Angelo, Texas at the time of writing.

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).

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.

Raphael Brown (Beverly Holladay Brown) was born in New York and spent most of his career as a reference librarian with the Library of Congress, retiring in 1967. He was a member of a secular order of Franciscans and wrote and translated over a dozen books on Catholic topics (Source: The San Diego North County Times [http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2000/06/21/export11191.txt] - online edition, Archives, Obituaries for June 21, 2000).

Russ Brown was at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario at the time of writing to Merton.

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.

Beatrice Bruteau was a friend of Daniel Walsh and had asked Walsh to invite Merton to Fordham University for a conference by the Cardinal Bea Institute of Spirituality (Merton could not go). She writes now to submit a play written by her friend, Helen De Sola, entitled "Pandora's Box". Bruteau received a doctorate in philosophy from Fordham University, where she was one of the founders of the Teilhard Research Institute, an interdisciplinary institute dedicated to the ideas of Teilhard de Chardin. She has authored many books and articles on the study of philosophy, mathematics and religion, demonstrating the integration of the disciplines and the East-West dialogue in religion. (Source: Merton and Judaism. Louisville, KY: Fons Vitae Press. 2003.)

Dame Marcella van Bruyn was a Benedictine nun of Stanbrook Abbey in England. Entering the community in her forties, she spent twenty-three years in community before leaving to pursue a life of solitude. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 160.)

The Western Union Telegram from "A BRYAN" was sent from Clayton, Missouri.

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).

Genovefa Brzatynska is writing from Cracow, Poland.

Fr. Vitus Bucher, O.S.B. (Edmund Bucher) was a Benedictine monk of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota.

Arthur R. Buckley was an editor for The Seabury Press in New York.

See also, Merton's manuscript essay "Two Comments: 'SENSITIVITY TRAINING' [BY CHARLOTTE BUHLER] AND 'THE AVANT GARDE IN THE ARTS' [BY HENRY WINTHROP AND GERALD SYKES]."

Fr. R. Bùi-bàng-Hiên was writing from Saigon, South Vietnam.

Jacqueline Bull was Head of Special Collections at the University of Kentucky's Margaret I. King Library.

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.

Shirley Burden was a photographer from Beverly Hills, California.

Jeanne Burdick was working in physical medicine and rehabilitation at a veterans' hospital in Topeka, Kansas. Her agnosticism had left her feeling empty but had trouble accepting religious and mystical thought and asks Merton for help in explaining his religious experience.

Christoper Burke was the son of Merton's friend, Professor Herbert Burke.

Professor Herbert Burke was teaching English at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota.

Dom Jerome Burke was Abbot of Our Lady of the Genesee in New York.

Dan Burns was writing from Boystown in Miami, Florida.

Ethel Burns was writing from New York and seemed to be familiar with some of Merton's Columbia University acquaintances, including Mark Van Doren, whom she mentions seeing on a TV interview in which he spoke of Merton.

Dom Flavian Burns (born Thomas Burns in 1931) was Abbot of Gethsemani from 1968-1973. Dom Flavian approved Merton's trip to Bangkok and later approved a side journey in the same trip to India, where Merton met the Dalai Lama. Burns had been inspired by «Seven Storey Mountain» after high school and was drawn to Gethsemani. There, he studied under Merton when Merton was Master of Scholastics. In 1966, after Merton had paved the way for hermits, Burns was allowed to live as a hermit at Gethsemani until taking over as Gethsemani's seventh abbot in 1968. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, p. 35.)

T. F. Burns was a founding director of the Tablet publishing company. He worked for, and later became chairman of Burns and Oates publishing company. Both the publisher and the publication were produced for a Catholic audience. However, Burns was not afraid to take some controversial views, such as criticizing «Humanae Vitae» after the Second Vatican Council. He writes to Merton from London. (Source: "The History of the Tablet - a summary of '1840-1990 A Commemorative History, The Tablet' by Michael Walsh" from «The Tablet» website [http://www.thetablet.co.uk/history.shtml].)

Patricia Burton has produced bibliographies of Thomas Merton and wrote The Book that Never Was: Thomas Merton’s Peace in the Post-Christian Era.

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.

C. R. Busby appears to be writing from England.

Cynthia Bush was Publicity Director for New Directions Publishing Corporation in New York.

Fr. Paul Bussard was Editor-in-Chief of «The Catholic Digest» and was writing from St. Paul, Minnesota.

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.

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.

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.

D. J. Cahill is writing from the Editorial Department of Burns and Oates publishers from London.

Merton writes to Roger Caillois, who was in Buenos Aires at t he time of writing.

During the time of Merton's correspondence with Paul Tillich, Grace Calí Leonard was Tillich's secretary and editorial assistant at Harvard University. Now going by her maiden name of Calí in her later roles as journalist and freelance writer, her book entitled Paul Tillich, First Hand: A Memoir of the Harvard Years was published in 1996, which includes a chapter on Merton and Tillich.

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.

Before the Second Vatican Council was over, Dom Helder Câmara moved from being auxiliary bishop of Rio de Janeiro to archbishop of Olinda and Recife, a very poor region in the northeast of Brazil. Dubbed the "red bishop" by «Time» magazine, he was hailed by some as champion of the poor and labeled as a communist radical by detractors. A famous quote of his is, "When I feed the poor they called me a saint", he once said. "When I asked, 'Why are they poor?' they called me a communist." (Sources: «The Hidden Ground of Love» and The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research [http://www.transnational.org/forum/power/1999/09redbishop.html].)

Angus Cameron is writing on behalf of Alfred A. Knopf publishers from New York.

Charles Cameron was a 20-year-old student from Christ Church College in Oxford England. (Source: «The Road to Joy», p. 333.)

P. Campbell was a missionary on leave from Senegal. He writes from Kent, England.

Will Campbell was co-founder and publisher of «Katallagete» (Greek for "be reconciled!") along with editor Jim Holloway and the Committee of Southern Churchmen (CSC). His views in support of racial equality got him into trouble as a Baptist minister in the south and in campus ministry at the University of Mississippi. In 1956, he became Southern field director the Division of Racial and Cultural Relations for the National Council of Churches (NCC). He had some ideological differences and split with them in 1963, forming with others the Committee of Southern Churchmen from the moribund Fellowship of Southern Churchmen. (Source: Ford, Jennifer. "Will Campbell and Christ's Ambassadors: Selections from the Katallagete/James Y. Holloway Collection, Special Collections, University of Mississippi." «The Journal of Southern Religion»: August 2000. ‹http://jsr.fsu.edu/ford.htm›, accessed 2005/04/22.)

Sr. Eileen Campion was finishing a doctorate at Columbia University in New York at the time of writing.

Msgr. Francis X. Canfield was Rector of the Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit, Michigan.

Fr. Joseph Canivera was a Trappist monk from the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Scourmont in Belgium.

Marie Cantlon was writing on behalf of Harper and Row, 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.

Fr. J. A. Caraman was writing from Umvukwes, Rhodesia (currently Mvurwi, Zimbabwe).

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.

Ernesto Cardenal was a poet and priest from Nicaragua who had studied as a novice under Merton at Gethsemani from 1957-1959. While in seminary in Cuernavaca, Mexico, in 1959, Cardenal began a correspondence with Merton. Cardenal later returned to his native country to found a contemplative lay community called Our Lady of Solentiname on an island in Lake Nicaragua. Founded as an artistic community, it became more involved with the plight of the poor in the region. After Cardenal allied himself with the Sandinistas, his community was destroyed by government forces 1977. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, p. 41; ).

Arthur Graham Carey was the founder of «The Catholic Art Quarterly», later known as «Good Work».

Harry J. Cargas was writing from the Department of English at Saint Louis University in Missouri. He was the former editor of «Queen's Work», who published Merton's introduction to the Japanese edition of «The Seven Storey Mountain». He was a decorated combat veteran who had become a pacifist and liked Merton's writings on non-violence.

Archbishop Alfonso Carinci was Titular Archbishop of Seleucia in Isauria and was Director General of a society called Adoratio Quotidiana et Perpetua Sanctissimi Eucharistiae Sacramenti inter Sacerdotes Cleri Saecularis (Daily Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration for Diocesan Priests). He writes from Rome.

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.