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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.

Daniel Berrigan was a Catholic priest, social activist, and poet who entered the Society of Jesus (1939), was ordained (1952), and after studying in France (where he was influenced by the worker-priest movement), he taught at Catholic schools until becoming associate professor of theology at LeMoyne College (Syracuse, NY) (1957-1962). After serving as assistant editor of Jesuit Missions in New York (1963-1965), he became associate director of United Religious Work (1966-1969). Active in opposing the Vietnam War, he went with professor Howard Zinn to Hanoi, North Vietnam, to assist in obtaining the release of three American pilots (1968); the diary he kept during this mission, along with 11 poems, became «Night Flight to Hanoi» (1968). With his brother, Philip Berrigan, he gained national attention for destroying draft registration files in Catonsville, Md. (1968); in 1970 he was sentenced to three years in prison for this, but he went underground for several months until federal authorities arrested him on Block Island (off Rhode Island). After 18 months in prison, he was paroled in 1972 and participated with his brother in the first Plowshares Action (1980), a protest at the General Electric Plant at King of Prussia, Pa. Living among Jesuits, writing and conducting retreats, he was arrested regularly for his protest actions at weapons manufacturers and other sites (1980-1992). He wrote over 50 books, including «The Trial of the Catonsville 9» (1970), an autobiography (1987), and at least four films. (Source: Biography from April 16th, 2004, lecture write-up by Paul Pearson.)

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.

Passionist priest, writer, and scholar, Thomas Berry shared an interest with Merton in Asian spiritual traditions and both wrote on the subject. Later describing himself as a "geologian", Fr. Berry would achieve more prominence for his writings on deep ecology and ecospirituality.

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.

Berval is writing on behalf of «France-Asie: Biligual Review of Asian Culture and Problems».

Jim Best was Director of Publications for the Fellowship of Reconciliation in New York and their magazine «Fellowship».

Yolanda Bettencourt writes from the editorial department of the publishing house Livaria Agir Editors in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Miss Biegansho is writing from Poland.

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).

Dom Colomban Bissey served as Abbot of Melleray in France, the mother house of the Abbey of Gethsemani, from 1958-1986. He conducted visitations to Gethsemani as he was Gethsemani's Father Immediate.

Hector Black is writing on behalf of Plough Publishing House. It was affiliated with the Society of Brothers, a Bruderhof Community, in Farmington, Pennsylvania.

Mary Childs Black was, at time of writing, Director of the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection in Williamsburg, Virginia. (See also the Finding Aid to the Mary Black Papers at the Winterthur Museum, Garden, and Library [http://findingaid.winterthur.org/html/col538.html]).

Judy Blanchard desired to become a hermit sought the help of Dom Jacques Winandy, a hermit from Canada, whom Merton had recommended to her.

"Carmen Blumenkron is a product of two cultures: American and Mexican, though her heritage is "Long Island Yankee," Irish, German and Spanish. Born in Manhattan, she grew up in Mexico City, where she now lives, spending her free time at her country home in Cuernavaca… She writes poetry in English, Spanish and French…" (Source: "Biographical Sketch" from this file.)

At the time of writing, Fon W. Boardman, Jr. was Vice-President of Oxford University Press in New York.

Dr. C. W. van Boekel is writing from the Netherlands on behalf of the Dutch periodical «Ons Geestelijk Leven»

Merton remembered Nancy Hauck Boettcher when he was young and she was a baby in Long Island. After the death of Merton's mother Ruth in 1921, Nancy's grandmother, Freida "Nanny" Hauck came to help Merton's grandparents take care of Thomas and John Paul Merton. Nancy's aunt Elsie married Merton's uncle Harold Jenkins. Harold and Elsie took care of Nanny Hauck at first. According to Nancy, they "threw her out of their house", and she came to live with Walter and Ruth Hauck, Nancy's parents. The difficult situation of her parents taking care of Nanny is the subject of the first letter. At this time, Nancy was married, had a couple of children, and was unable to assist her parents with the care of Nanny. (Source: «The Road to Joy», pp. 57 and 65.)

Genowefa Bogatynska writes from Poland.

Sr. Bogdana is writing from the Congregation of the Sacred Heart in Krakow, Poland.

Jan Boggs was a sophomore at Niskayuna High School in New York.

Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Serge Bolshakoff received a doctorate in philosophy from Christ Church, Oxford. In his travels to churches and monasteries in promotion of Christian unity, he became acquainted with such notables as Pope John XXIII, Patriarch Athenagoras, Archbishop Temple of Canterbury, as well as the Abbot General of the Cistercians, Dom Gabriel Sortais (see "Sortais, Gabriel" and "Fox, James" files).

Robert Bonazzi was founder and editor of Latitudes magazine, which began in 1966.

Fred Bond is writing on behalf of the Louisville Art Workshop.

Paul Hyde Bonner's letterhead states he is writing from "The Teacherage" in Summerville, South Carolina.

Mrs. A. Boodoosingh was Foreign Rights Secretary for Darton, Longman and Todd Limited in London.

Fr. Gregory was a Benedictine at Mount Saviour Monastery near Elmira, New York. He went with Dom Aelred Wall to Abiquiu, New Mexico, to found the Monastery of Christ in the Desert.

Cameron Borton is writing as Pastor of the North Congregational Church in Winchendon, Massachusetts.

Fr. Maurice Boscher is writing from Tahiti.

Fr. Gregorio Botte was a Franciscan writing from Mount Alvernia Seminary in Wappinger Falls, New York.

Boucher was a former Carmelite.

Daniel Bouchez was a professor at the seminary of Holy Ghost College in Seoul, South Korea.

Nina Bourne was writing on behalf of the publishing house of Simon and Schuster.

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.