"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.)
Fred Bond is writing on behalf of the Louisville Art Workshop.
Fr. Gregorio Botte was a Franciscan writing from Mount Alvernia Seminary in Wappinger Falls, New York.
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.
Mrs. R. M. Bowman writes from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Barbara Ann Braveman was Assistant Editor for «Freelance» in Clayton (St. Louis), Missouri, at the time of writing.
Dick Britton writes from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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.
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.)
Genovefa Brzatynska is writing from Cracow, Poland.
Arthur R. Buckley was an editor for The Seabury Press in New York.
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.
Dom Jerome Burke was Abbot of Our Lady of the Genesee in New York.
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.)
C. R. Busby appears to be writing from 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.
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; ).
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.
Jorge Carrera Andrade was a poet from Ecuador. He went to law school but was more interested in poetry. He had an early interest in leftist politics. During this period of correspondence with Merton, he served as ambassador to France and to Venezuela. He served as ambassador to a number of other nations during his life. Merton liked his poems and translated at least six of them into English. (Source: "Carrera Andrade, Jorge." World Authors. 1996. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 20 Oct. 2005. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
Pheme Perkins was a graduate student in scripture and philosophy at the time of writing to Merton.
Dom Placide Pernot was a Benedictine monk writing from the monastery of Toumliline in Azrou, Morocco. At the time, he was sub-prior of the monastery.
John-Francis Phipps wrote the book «Look Forward in Joy» and hoped Merton could help him find a publisher in the United States. He writes from Wimbleton, England.
John Pick was a professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was chairman of the University Committee on the Fine Arts and arranged to have a display of Merton's calligraphic drawings, entitled "Forty-Three Signatures", displayed at Marquette.
M. R. Uminski was master of a British ship in the Hudson Steamship Company. He was of Polish decent and offers to translate Merton's book «New Seeds of Contemplation» into Polish, and for this book he writes to thank Merton.
In late 1958, Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi was appointed Apostolic Delegate to the United States, replacing Amleto Cicognani. Vagnozzi was elevated to Cardinal in 1967.
Mariann Vail writes from Richmond, Indiana.
Philip Cascia was a junior in high school at St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Connecticut.
Fr. Dave Casey mentions in his letter, written from the guest house at Gethsemani, that he has spent the past seven years in Japan after receiving a doctorate from Harvard University in Oriental Religions. He was a colleague of other Catholic experts on Buddhism like Fr. Heinrich Dumoulin, S.J., and Fr. Hugo M. Enomiya-Lassalle.
Carlos Duelo Cavero writes from Los Angeles, spent time at Indiana University, and whose home was Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fr. Luis Ma. Cazalou was writing from the Comunidad de la Virgen, Monasterio Porta Caeli, in Berisso, Argentina.
Susan Chapulis was a sixth grader writing from Waterbury, Connecticut.
Dr. R. S. Y. Chi was a scholar on many topics including Buddhism and Oriental art. He earned doctoral degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. Merton learned of him from Lunsford Yandell, who put them in contact in 1967. Dr. Chi was a professor at University of Indiana at the time of writing (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», pp. 121-122).
Noam Chomsky, best known for his landmark influence on linguistics, has also been a stern critic of political empiricism and a voice of the political left in the United States. He was a stalwart critic of the war in Vietnam and attempts to get Merton's support of "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority". (Source: "Chomsky, Avram Noam" The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Simon Blackburn. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Bellarmine University. 28 July 2004 ‹http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t98.e397›).
Gordon Christiansen was the Director of Studies of the Peace Education Division of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The AFSC is a social justice and peace organization founded by Quakers.
John Ciardi, according to the title of a lecture series on Ciardi, was a "Poet - Translator - Critic - Editor" (the lecture's brochure is included in the correspondence file). He long served as the Poetry Editor for the «Saturday Review» in New York, and in this capacity writes to Merton. He is noted for making poetry accessible to the public.
In 1933, Archbishop Amleto Giovanni Cicognani was appointed the Apostolic Delegate to the United States. He was elevated to Cardinal in 1958, replaced as Apostolic Delegate by Egidio Vagnozzi. In 1968, Cardinal Cicognani was made President of Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, Roman Curia, Vatican City.
Sr. Clare Marie was of the Poor Clares of Chicago.
Fr. Benjamin Clark was a monk of Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. He was a novice with Merton and later served as one of his censors. (Source: «The School of Charity», pp. 336.)
Fr. Benedict (Br. Benedict at this time) was a Trappist monk at Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri.
Thomas Coffey was President of Dimension Books in Denville, New Jersey.
Marvin Cohen was author of «The Self-Devoted Friend» (1967), and a contributor to «Monks Pond» in 1968. He writes from New York.
Mary Cole was working for the Archdiocese of New York in the office of Spanish Community Action.
Early in their correspondence, Sr. Angela of the Eucharist (née Viola M. Collins) was a Carmelite Prioress in Louisville, Kentucky. Between 1965 and 1966, she would became Mother Angela of the Eucharist, appointed superior of the Carmelite monastery in Savannah, Georgia.
Fr. Bernard Collins was Editor of «Monastic Studies». He and the publication were located at Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia, in 1963-1964. Later in 1964, Collins writes from Guadalupe Abbey in Lafayette, Oregon. By 1965 through the rest of the correspondence, he and «Monastic Studies» have moved to Mount Saviour Monastery in Pine City, New York. In December of 1966, Collins informs Merton that he has changed his religious name to Brendan instead of Bernard, and that not all solemnly professed monks would be addressed as "Father" and that he would now be Brother Brendan.
Edward Collins was writing to Merton from Iowa City.
Br. Frederic Collins is a monk of Gethsemani Abbey. Because of his business studies before entering the monastery, Dom James Fox appointed him to start a mail-order business for the cheese and fruitcake that was made by the monks. This type of monastic consumerism did not appear to Merton, and the two did not see eye to eye. In the mid-sixties, he was sent to La Dehesa Monastery in Chile that Gethsemani was taking over as a mission from Spencer Abbey (becoming an independent monastery in 1970, and moving and changing its name to Miraflores in 1986). Unlike the mail order business, Merton was very interested in Latin America and considered this as a place to become a hermit. At this time, the two monks became closer. [Sources: personal account by Br. Frederic Collins (June 2003) and Web site of AIM (Inter-Monastery Alliance) ‹http://www.aimintl.org/communs/miraflores/miraflores.htm›.]
Ted Coltman was writing Merton from Cambridge, Massachusetts, on behalf of «The Current».
William Congdon was an American artist who converted to Catholicism in 1959. For much of his life, he was a wanderer who rejected a life as heir to a wealthy Rhode Island family. His conversion happened in Assisi, where he would live much of the rest of his life, dying in Italy in 1998. His early artistic influences came from the neo-romantic and abstract expressionist schools. After his conversion to Catholicism, he produced many religiously themed works of art. His biography from his foundation's web site likens his conversion to a "suicide", marginalizing him from the mainstream art community. Congdon wrote essays on art, especially sacred art and the duty of a Christian artist. Merton was writing about similar themes in his unpublished work, «Art and Worship». (Source: Official William Congdon Site, maintained by the William G. Congdon Foundation, ‹https://congdonfoundation.com›, 2004/09/16.)
Terence J. Cooke was Chancellor of the Vatican Pavilion for the New York World's Fair in 1964-1965. He was later made bishop of New York and named a cardinal in 1969.
Doña Luisa Coomaraswamy was the widow of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, a scholar of Indian, Persian, and Islamic art, who saw a unifying truth underlying major religions of the world. Doña Luisa took the responsibility of organizing his papers after his death and attempted to collect some of his unfinished projects for publication as a book of collected writings. She died before finishing this project, but Roger Lipsey edited a two-volume set of his papers published in 1977 (source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 125).
John Sherman Cooper served as a United States Senator from Kentucky in intermittent terms between 1946-1973 and was a member of the Republican Party.
José Coronel Urtecho was a poet from Nicaragua who influenced many other Latin American poets after him, including his nephew and former novice of Merton, Ernesto Cardenal. Having spent much of his youth in California, he read and admired Ezra Pound and other North American writers. After returning to Nicaragua, he founded the Vanguard Movement in 1927. He writes to Merton from his hacienda in Los Chiles, Costa Rica. A fan of Merton (and Merton of him), Coronel Urtecho planned to publish a Spanish anthology of Merton's work, but it did not appear in print. (Source: «The Courage for Truth», p. 171.)
Cecilia Corsanego was a student at Pro Civitate Christiana in Italy. She was writing a thesis on Merton's poetry and asks for his assistance.
Antoinette M. Costa writes from Taunton, Massachusetts. She was writing a school research paper on Merton's poetry.
Sr. Marion William Cotty writes from St. Teresa Convent in Providence, Rhode Island.
The «C.P.S.A. Bulletin» seems to have been the magazine of the Catholic Poetry Society of America.
Fr. Bernard Cranor has been a Benedictine at the Monastery of Christ in the Desert since 1989. He began his monastic experience at Holy Trinity in Utah from 1951-1956, taking the name Stephen. He did not take solemn vows there, but decided to study for the Dominicans in California, where he would take the name Bernard and remain there as a priest until joining the Benedictines. It is during this time of his studies with the Dominicans that he has an exchange of letters with Merton. He was friends with another Merton correspondent, Br. Antoninus (William Everson), to whom Merton sends his greetings.
Paul A. Crow, Jr. was Associate Professor of Church History and Registrar of the College of the Bible in Lexington, Kentucky, at the time of this letter.
Sheila Cudahy was an editor and partner for Farrar, Straus and Cudahy Publishers at the time of writing to Merton.
Michael Cuddihy was one of the translators of a book by Jacques Maritain (likely The Peasant of the Garonne). Cuddihy writes from Tucson, Arizona.
