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.