Fr. Deryck Hanshell was a Jesuit priest and sub-editor of «The Month», a magazine published by the Society of Jesus (Jesuit Order) in London. The editor was Fr. Philip George Caraman, another correspondent of Merton's.
Charles Hansel was Director of Religious Life at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky.
Monsignor James J. Hammon was Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Natchez, Mississippi.
Herman Hanekamp was born in Oldenburg, Germany in 1884. After immigration to the United States in 1904, not much is known other than a couple of years he spent as a cowboy in Texas before riding a horse to Gethsemani when he entered in 1912 (account by Raymond DeSutter [formerly Fr. M. Robert in religious life during his time at Gethsemani]. Hanekamp had taken simple vows but was dismissed in 1917. After leaving vowed religious life, he contnued to live near the monastery. Whether Hanekamp was officially given land that was later reaquired by the abbey is uncertain. He had a small dwelling and raised crops, goats, and pigs. He died in 1958.
Jim Hampton writes from the Bluegrass Bureau in Lexington, Kentucky, of the Louisville newspaper «The Courier-Journal».
Victor Hammer was an artist and typographer originally from Vienna. He moved to the United States as Hitler rose to power and took a position at Wells College in New York. In 1948, he retired from Wells College and became artist-in-residence at Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky. He brought a hand press he had used in Italy to Lexington and printed under his Italian imprint of Stamperia del Santuccio. The letters do not tell when the two first met, but by the first letter from Hammer in 1955, he states that he had been to Gethsemani and exchanged ideas with Merton already and was friends with Br. Giles. Merton also received permission to visit Victor and Carolyn Hammer in Lexington. On one trip in 1959, Merton saw a triptych painted by Victor. Hammer had intended to paint a Madonna and child but it did not turn out right. In the center panel, a woman crowns a child. Merton declared her to be "Hagia Sophia", the Holy Wisdom of God, which prompted Merton to write his poem "Hagia Sophia". (Source: «Witness to Freedom», p. 3.)
Veronica (Moni) Hammer was a daughter of Victor Hammer and writes from Vienna, Austria.
Carolyn Reading married Victor Hammer in 1955. The Hammers became good friends of Merton, who received permission to visit them in Lexington. Merton would later write to Carolyn to obtain books because of her position at the King Library at University of Kentucky. This was a bond that help University of Kentucky establish a small collection of Merton's papers.
Fr. Hamman was a Franciscan writing from Notre Dame des Buis in Besançon, France.
Alfred Starr Hamilton was a poet and contributor to «Monks Pond». In his biographical statement from «Monks Pond», he states that he had lived through the depression and spent a year in the army; since then, he became a socialist and lived on very little money as a poet.
The Honorable Shinzo Hamai was Mayor of Hiroshima, Japan.
Fr. Columba Halsey was a Benedictine monk of St. Maur's Priory in South Union, Kentucky. The monastery was unique in the United States as having been established as a racially integrated community when it was founded in 1947 on the grounds of a Shaker village.
Fr. Amédée Hallier was a Trappist monk of the Abbay of Notre-Dame de Grâce in Bricquebec, Normany, France. He wrote «Un éducateur monastique», a book about St. Aelred of Rievaulx. Merton wrote an introduction which was published in the English language edition. The book was published in English as «The Monastic Tehology of Aelred of Rievaulx».
Alfred B. Hailparn was a friend of Merton's while at Columbia University. Hailparn's father was a liquor distributor in Yonkers, to which Merton makes reference in the second letter. In 1936, Merton was the editor-in-chief of the Columbia yearbook, «Columbian», and Hailparn was managing editor. They were working on the yearbook for May of 1937. (Source: «Witness to Freedom», p. 156.)
Foster Hailey was a «New York Times» correspondent who spent much of the 1950's on assignment in the Middle East. It seems the two men were acquainted and corresponded prior to this 1961 letter and had last been in touch in the late 1950's.
D. Grafton Gwynn was the author of poetry, novels and an autobiography that he was trying to publish at the time of correspondence with Merton. Merton provides Gwynn with some feedback on his poems. Gwynn writes from Baltimore, Maryland.
Romuald Gustaw was a Franciscan from the Library of the Catholic University in Lublin, Poland.
Leif Gustafson was a Radio Officer for UNEF (United Nations Emergency Force to secure the troop withdrawal from Egypt and keep peace with Israel). He was originally from Sweden and a convert to Catholicism. The UNEF headquarters was Beirut, Lebanon, but Gustafson traveled throughout Palestine and writes from Gaza.
Brijen K. Gupta was a visiting professor from India at the University of Cincinnati's NDEA World History Institute.
An Anglican and Oxford graduate, Etta Gullick first writes to Merton to read her edition of the «Rule of Perfection» by Benet of Canfield (1562-1610). She had hoped Merton would write a preface. Although this did not come to pass, they discussed Benet of Canfield over their long correspondence and also about other great spiritual writers, about whom Gullick lectured on at St. Stephen's House, a theological college at Oxford. She was also involved in dialogue with Orthodox Christians, founding an Anglican-Orthodox center and hostel and meeting Ecumenical Patriarch, Athenagoras, in 1962. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 340.)
Francesca Guli sends Merton the manuscript for a children's book of hers that was later published, «The Boy and the Stars: A Lyrical Tale of Dante Alighieri, the Boy».
Fr. Jean Guénnou writes from the Missions Étrangères in Paris.
Fr. Filiberto Guala was a monk of the Cistercian abbey of Frattocchi which is near Rome. Pope Paul VI, a longtime friend of Guala, commissioned him and his Abbot, Francis Decroix, to write up a "Message of Contemplatives" to present to a Synod of Bishops. Merton and others were asked to contribute and much of Merton's addition was used. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 344.)
Fr. Bernard Grunewald (Br. Bernard at the time of writing) founded the first hermits colony of Roman Catholic monks in the United States in 1966. He writes from the hermitage of Our Lady of Solitude in Leander, Texas.
Dr. Gerald Groves was a former monk of Gethsemani. He wrote the book «Up and Down Merton's Mountain».
Sharon Grossman writes as President of the National Federation of Catholic College Students from Washington, D.C.
Richard Grossinger was a poet and was editor and publisher of «Io» magazine. He and his wife, Lindy Hough, were contributors to «Monks Pond». He put Merton in contact with another «Monks Pond» contributor, Nelson Richardson or Providence, Rhode Island. Grossinger writes from Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Maria (Mary) Groman writes from Warsaw, Poland.
Miguel Grinberg was a poet from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who has authored a number of collections of poetry. He took over the editorship of «Eco Contemporáneo» in 1961, a publication to which Merton later subscribed. He came to Gethsemani to meet Merton in March of 1964 while traveling across the United States.
William Grimes spent time as a novice at Gethsemani Abbey under the name Br. Alcuin. He left in the autumn of 1964. Merton and Grimes continued to exchange letters in subsequent years.
Bede Griffiths, born Alan Richard Griffiths, was born in England in 1906. He converted to Catholicism in the early 1930's and soon after joined a Benedictine monastery, Prinknash Abbey, and took the name Bede. Having later served as a Prior of Farnborough and then Pluscardin, during which time he gained an interest in Indian thought. He first asked to go to India to set up a monastic foundation, but was denied. Later, he was sent to India by the same abbot, but he was to be under the local bishop. From 1955-1958, he joined Fr. Francis Mahieu Acharya at Kurisumala Ashram (Mountain of the Cross), where they developed a Syriac rite monastic liturgy. Griffiths took the Sanskrit name Dhayananda, meaning "bliss of prayer". In 1963, he conducted a trip to the United States in which he engaged in an East-West dialog. (Source: Coff, Pascaline, O.S.B. "Man, Monk, Mystic." website of the Bede Griffiths Trust, accessed 2004/02/17. ‹http://www.bedegriffiths.com/bio.htm›)
John Howard Griffin was a journalist and author of a book that Merton read and found inspirational, Black Like Me, in which Griffin took medication to darken his skin and traveled throughout the racially segregated south of the late 1950's. Griffin first came to Gethsemani and met Merton in the early 1960's. Thereafter, he often visited and struck up a correspondence with Merton. He was also friends with Jacques Maritain who met with him and Merton in October of 1966 at Gethsemani. Griffin helped foster a love of photography in Merton and provided cameras, film and developing for him. Griffin was appointed Merton's official biographer, but was unable to finish his planned biography due to health troubles. Despite this, he produced a book on Merton's photography titled A Hidden Wholeness: The Visual World of Thomas Merton. Two books using materials collected while working on Merton's biography were published after Griffin's death, The Hermitage Journal: A Diary Kept While Working on the Biography of Thomas Merton and Follow the Ecstasy: Thomas Merton, the Hermitage Years 1965-1968. All letters are written from Griffin's home in Texas, unless otherwise stated. He was in Mansfield, Texas, until midway through 1966, then in Fort Worth.
Gregory Griffin was the son of John Howard Griffin. He did some photographic processing for Merton. He writes from Fort Worth, Texas.