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Naomi Burton Stone was Merton's literary agent who became a close friend and confidant. She was born in England and came to the United States in 1939. She took an early interest in Merton's work and was trying, unsuccessfully, to publish his early novels before he entered the monastery. However, she at first thought his writing career had ended when he entered the monastery. Later, Merton would send her a manuscript of The Seven Storey Mountain. In late 1946, she met with success in submitting it to Robert Giroux, who published and edited the best-selling book. (Source: Witness to Freedom, p. 123.)

Barbara Hubbard was a futurist scholar and, in 1992, became the President and co-founder of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution, whose vision is "the awakening of the spiritual, social, and scientific potential of humanity, in harmony with nature for the highest good of all life." Hubbard earned degrees from Bryn Mawr College, the Sorbonne and L’Ecole des Sciences Politiques in Paris. In addition, she was awarded the Emerson Theological Institute's first Doctor of Conscious Evolution degree. She was a nominee for Vice-President on the Democratic ticket in 1984 and had since advocated for a Peace Room in the White House. Her work in the futurist field began in the 1960's when she began a pioneering newsletter in evolutionary transformation entitled The Center Letter of the Center of American Living in New York. She writes to Merton from Lakeville, Connecticut. (Source: "About FCE’s Founder, Dr. Barbara Marx Hubbard". Foundation for Conscious Evolution, ‹https://www.barbaramarxhubbard.com/leadership›, Accessed 2020/04/15.)

Daniel Walsh was a life-long educator and one of the most influential professors on Merton's life. After earning a doctorate at University of Toronto alongside Étienne Gilson, Walsh became professor at Manhattanville College in New York from 1934-1960. In addition, he was a visiting professor of philosophy at Columbia from 1936-1955, and afterward serving as an adjunct professor at Columbia. In 1939, Merton had Walsh for a course on St. Thomas Aquinas. At the bar of the Biltmore Hotel in New York in 1939, Merton told Walsh of his interest in religious life. After mentioning difference orders, including that he was impressed by the Trappists at Gethsemani Abbey, Walsh recommended the Franciscans. Merton would later be rejected by the Franciscans, but remember Walsh's praise of the Trappists. Later, Walsh would join Merton at Gethsemani Abbey in 1960 as a advisor and new professor for the abbey's philosophy program. He soon became a visiting professor at Bellarmine College in Louisville. Archbishop John Floersh offered to ordain the sixty-year-old Walsh a priest in 1967. A surprised but delighted Walsh was ordained at St. Thomas Seminary, a ceremony attended by Merton. Walsh died in 1975 and is buried near the monastic enclosure at Gethsemani Abbey. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, pp. 515-516.)

At the time of correspondence, Gregorio Pietro Cardinal Agagianian was Patriarch of Cilicia and of Armenia. He sends his letter and preface for «The Living Bread» from Beirut in December of 1955. Merton notes in a published letter to Sr. Therese Lentfoehr («The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 222) that Cardinal Agagianian's preface will not appear in the first printing of the book. However, by the first printing in 1956, it seems to have made it in.

Fr. Barnabas Ahern was a Passionist priest involved in a new Catholic Bible translation effort. He offered Merton advice on biblical instruction, instruction of novices, and reviewed Merton's early manuscripts and books. See the following link for more information on Fr. Ahern: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=92274263.

S. H. Newman writes from El Paso, Texas. He had once entered the Trappists but was rejected before vows because they feared he was going blind. He spent time with the Carthusians, but was dismissed for disobedience. He did not go blind, married, and became the father of two girls. He includes a letter to his brother, Fletcher (Fletch) Newman, at Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey in Oregon.