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Dom Clemente José Carlos Isnard was a Benedictine monk who became Bishop of the Diocese of Nova Friburgo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Sadhu Ittyavirah was a Catholic author from India who sent Merton some of his books, including «The Witness», «1+1=1» and «We Are One».

Dr. Lalla Iverson was Director of the Association for Rural Aid in Medicine (ARAM). She writes from Rockville, Maryland.

Fr. Thomas W. Jackson was Catholic Chaplain for the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh.

H. L. Jacobson was Director of the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) International Trade Centre, publishers of «International Trade FORUM». He writes from Geneva, Switzerland.

Stephen James was founder and President of the Peace Hostage Exchange Foundation, headquartered in New York. The idea was to send delegations from the United States to strategic targets in the Soviet Union and vice versa. The hope was to get some prominent individuals, like Merton or Robert Kennedy, to go over and to get Premier Krushchev's family and others to come here in exchange.

Harold Brewster Jenkins was Merton's uncle on his mother's side. He married Elsie Hauck Holahan in 1938. (See "Jenkins, Elsie" for a more complete description).

George Johnson was on the Catholic Worker staff. He visited Gethsemani in late February 1962 with Jim Forest and others. Merton mentions this meeting in his journal entry of March 2, 1962.

Poet Halvard Johnson was born in Newburgh, New York, and spent his boyhood in both in small Hudson Valley towns and New York. He spent his years after college in Ohio hitchhiking around the United States in the late 1950's. After graduate study in English at University of Chicago, he began teaching at the University of Texas, El Paso for four years. Near the end of his time in Texas, he sent Merton some poems for «Monks Pond». After this, he taught in Puerto Rico, traveled Europe, and now has returned to his native New York where he writes and teaches at the New School. A number of his books of poetry have been published. (Source: Monks Pond, pp. 109 and 207.)

At the time of this correspondence, William Jovanovich was writing from New York as President of Harcourt, Brace and World.

L. Lauffmann writes from Bruay en Artois, France.

Fr. Thomas Keller was a Benedictine monk writing from Hauterive Abbey, Switzerland.

William Melvin Kelley was born and raised in New York. He went to Harvard with the intention of becoming a lawyer, but experienced a life-changing desire to become a writer after attending a prose fiction class of John Hawkes. He began writing an did not finish at Harvard. His novels and short stories reflect mythic takes on the frustration of the African American experience of racism in the United States. He first writes to Merton in response to a review Merton wrote for Kelley's first novel, «A Different Drummer», thanking him more that he "got it" than for liking it. The following year, he writes Merton after having read some of his writings. He expresses that he is not a Christian and harbors both happy and bitter memories of his mother's Catholicism. He expresses feeling more affirmed in Catholic Italy, though, than Protestant America. He would later move to Paris, a move to further distance himself from United States culture. He would later seek to rediscover some of the oral history tradition of Africa. Some of his other books include «A Drop of Patience» and «Dəm». (Source: "Kelley, William Melvin". World Authors. 1970. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 2005/05/12. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)

Mona Kelly writes from Amherstburg, Ontario. She was the mother of Fr. Timothy Kelly, who was later to be the eighth abbot of Gethsemani, serving from 1973-2000.

Wallace Kendrick was with the Catholic Worker movement.

Ethel Kennedy is the widow of Robert F. Kennedy and daughter of George and Ann Skakel (see "Skakel, Ann Brannack" file).

Catherine Kent was a 23-year-old teacher from Dorchester, Massachusetts, at the time of writing.

Walter Kerell writes from the Catholic Worker in New York.

Gabriel Khouri-Sarkis was editor of L'Orient Syrien and a West Syrian Rite Catholic priest. He writes from Paris, France.

Sr. Agnes Jae Soon Kim was from the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Seoul, South Korea.

Coretta Scott King, an advocate of civil rights and racial equality, is the widow of Martin Luther King, Jr. Merton writes to her after Martin's assassination. She telegrammed Gethsemani following Merton's death.

Simon King was Director of Burns and Oates publishers and writes from London.

Winston L. King was a professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He and Merton discuss Zen and the visit of Shibayama Roshi to Nashville.

Fr. David Kirk was a peace activist and member of the secular institute of the Company of St. Paul. He was studying in Rome in the early letters and later comes back to the United States to help found Emmaus House in New York.

Bonaventure Knaebel was a Benedictine Archabbot at the Archabbey of St. Meinrad at the time of writing.

John W. Kneller was Provost of Oberlin College in Ohio.

Laura Knight was a high school junior at Thomas Jefferson High School in Louisville, Kentucky. She asks for Merton's help in writing a term paper on him.

Fr. Bede Kok was a Brazilian Trappist monk.

Gerald Landry was living in Glen Garden, New Jersey, at the time of Merton's letter to him.

Kathleen Landy was writing on behalf of the Bureau of Information of the United States Catholic Conference in Washington, D.C.

Rogelius Lardé was writing on behalf of «The Second Coming» magazine and writes from New York, declining two of Merton's poems.

Lou Lauth, Jr. was Editor of the «Blue Book of Magazine Writers» and worked for the National Research Bureau, Inc., Chicago, Illinois.

Justus George Lawler was an editor with Herder and Herder. He lived near Chicago and edited the journal «Continuum». He has since written books on Church history, ethics, and Catholic literature and art.

Mario Lazo writes from Norfolk, Connecticut. He was working on a book concerning the instruction of Latin American history in public schools in the United States. He would later quote Merton in his book on Cuba, «A Dagger in the Heart».

Martha Lazure writes on behalf of Raymond H. Prince (see "Prince, Raymond" file) for permission to quote from Merton's May 22, 1965 letter to Dr. Prince for the newsletter of the R. M. Bucke Memorial Society. She writes from Montreal, Quebec.

In 1959, Richard Leeman was working on a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he lived with his wife and two children.

George Lensing, Jr. is an English professor at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he has served on the faculty since 1969. After earning his doctorate from Louisiana State in 1966, he spent a couple of years in the Peace Corps in Brazil, teaching at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro. While in Brazil, he sends Merton some poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade and some of his own poems. Merton includes Lensing's translation of "Morte do Leiteiro", or "Death of the Milkman", in «Monks Pond» IV.

L. Larry Leonard was Editor of «Current Thought on Peace and War» and faculty member of the Department of Political Science at Wisconsin State University.

Born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1903, Dom Maurizio (born Jacques) Levy-Duplatt was first a member of the Benedictine monastery of Clervaux in Luxembourg before transferring to the Camaldolese hermits in Frascati, Italy at Sacro Eremo Tuscolano in 1946. Merton corresponded with him as he pondered leaving Gethsemani to join the Camaldolese. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 86.)

Sr. Pilar Lizárraga was a Sister of the Instituto de Hermanas Esclavas del Corazón de Jesús from Rancagua, Chile, and was planning to do a thesis on Merton at the Colegio de Jesús in Salta, Argentina. Her proposed thesis was to be under the title, "Modern Man and his Search of Solitude in Thomas Merton".

A. López Llausás writes from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on behalf of Editorial Sudamericana S.A.

Jan Milic Lochman was born in Nove Mesto nad Metuji, Czechoslovakia. A theologian and professor of the Reformed tradition, he was ordained a minister of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren. He began a professorship in theology in Prague in 1950. In 1964, he was visiting the United States. He was due to go to Richmond, Virginia, but after a flight delay and change of plans, John Heidbrink arranged for him to come to Louisville and Gethsemani. Merton writes about Lochman in diary entries of March 6 and 19, 1964, describing a long conversation on Barth and Pope John XXIII lasting late into the night. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Lochman came with his family to New York and taught at Union Theological Seminary. He was later involved with the World Council of Churches and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. He was the author of a number of theological texts. (Source: Nyomi, Setri; and Milan Opocensky. "Jan Milic Lochman, 1922-2004". website of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. 1 January 2004. Accessed 12 September 2005. ‹http://warc.jalb.de/warcajsp/side.jsp?news_id=186&part_id=0&navi=6›.)

John Logan was writing on behalf of the Thomas More Association from Chicago. The association was responsible for the Thomas More Book Club, the Thomas More Book Shop, and the publication «The Critic», which published some of Merton's poems.

Sr. Marialein Lorenz was a Sinsinawa Dominican sister and teacher. She first writes from Mobile, Alabama, and later from Anaconda, Montana. While in Mobile during the 1940's and 1950's, she taught at an exclusively African-American high school. Merton and her students exchanged letters, and the students send Merton an amice, corporal, purificator and finger towel for his ordination. (Source: «The Road to Joy», p. 314.)

Fr. Louis Marié was a Trappist monk of Sainte Marie-du-Desert Abbey in Bellegarde, France.

Mina Loy spent her later years in Aspen, Colorado, and Merton writes to her there. "Loy moved from Victorian England to impressionist Paris, to futurist Florence, to bohemian Greenwich Village and back to expatriate Paris during her long career. . . . Painter, poet, actress, playwright, feminist, mother, designer, conceptual artist - her range of skills and experience make it difficult to place her too squarely in any one artistic category." (Source: Hanscombe, Gillian and Virginia L. Smyers, "Mina Loy's Life" on the website of Modern American Poetry at Illinois University. Accessed 11 March 2009. ‹http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/loy/bio.htm›.)

Pierre Lucas writes from the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, France.

Sr. Lurana was a Missionary Sister of the Blessed Sacrament from New Orleans, Louisiana. At the time of correspondence, she was Exhibits Director for an art Xavier University and arranged to have Merton's art displayed there.

Fr. Thomas MacMaster was a Trappist priest from the Abbey of Notre-Dame-des-Prairies in St. Norbert, Manitoba, Canada.

Una Maguire was a psychologist writing to thank Merton for his article "Notes on Love" that appeared in the Autumn 1967 issue of «Frontiers».

Bill Manning writes from Hopkins, Minnesota.

Fr. Marcellus was a Trappist monk of Holy Spirit Abbey in Conyers, Georgia.

Gladys Marcus was the sister of Merton's close friend Bob Lax. Merton got to know her and her husband, Benji Marcus, in the summer of 1938. Merton was having some difficulty in getting in touch with her brother Robert and asks her for assistance in 1967. She writes back informing him that he will be coming back to the United States. In addition, she informs Merton of the death of her husband.

Sr. Maria da Concricão da Virginem Dolorosa writes from the Carmelite convent of St. Teresa in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Sr. Marie of the Eucharist was a Carmelite nun.

Sr. Marie Pius writes from the Monastery of Saint Clare in New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the first African-American admitted to the Poor Clares in the United States. She was suffering from a terminal illness at the time of writing to Merton.

Br. Marie-Bernard was a Trappist monk, possibly of Gethsemani Abbey.

Sr. Marie-Bernarde was a Dominican sister of the Sacred Heart Dominican College in Houston, Texas.

Jacques Maritain was a philosopher and Catholic humanist writer who was quite influential in 20th century "new scholasticism", taking the writings of Thomas Aquinas and applying them to modern societal issues in philosophy and science. Born in Paris, he attended the Sorbonne and married Raïssa Oumancoff (1883-1960), who was a Jewish emigrée from Russia. Raïssa Maritain later achieved notoriety as a mystical poet and philosopher. Influenced by Léon Bloy, they were both baptized Catholic in 1906. A few years later, after having studied biology and mathematics at the University of Heidelberg, Jacques Maritain returned to France and discovered Aquinas' «Summa Theologica», which helped launch the direction of his writing. He would go on to write a number of influential books
Merton was first met Maritain at a lecture Maritain delivered at Catholic Book Club, where Dan Walsh introduced them. During Maritain's time as a professor at Princeton from 1948-1960, Merton and Maritain first wrote to each other. In 1949, Merton was struggling with thoughts of leaving the Trappists and joining the Carthusians. In Merton's later life, after he had achieved his desire for more solitude at a hermitage at Gethsemani, Maritain visited him at the hermitage in 1966. Since 1961, after Raïssa's death the previous year, Jacques Maritain had been living with the Little Brothers of Jesus in Toulouse. He took vows with them in 1971 and died there in 1973. (Sources: «The Courage for Truth», pp. 22-23; and "Maritain, Jacques." World Authors." 1996. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 30 Nov. 2005. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)

Sr. Mary John Markey was a School Sister of Notre Dame from Omaha, Nebraska, at the time of writing to Merton.

Dom Marie-Joseph Marquis was Abbot of Notre Dame de Grâce in Bricquebec, France, from 1940-1981.

Mother Mary Margaret was the Anglican abbess of Holy Cross Convent in Sussex, England. She discusses ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Anglicans and broader topics of ecumenism.

Sr. Mary Margaret is a Redemptorist nun of the Monastery of St. Alphonsus in Liguori, Missouri.

Archimandrite Elie Mastroyanopoulos writes from Athens, Greece.

Richard Matthews was Editor of the first edition of the «Florida Quarterly», from University of Florida in Gainesville. Martin Lee Curry took over as General Editor for the next issue.

Fr. Francesco Mattesini, from the journal «Vita e Pensiero» in Milan, Italy, writes to Robert MacGregor of New Directions publishing in New York. MacGregor makes a note on the letter and forwards it to Merton.

Sr. Mary Maurice and Sr. Lillian were Felician Sisters of the St. Teresa of Avila Convent in Akron, New York.

Leonard F. X. Mayhew was Publicity Editor for Sheed and Ward in New York.

Eoin McCarthy writes from London, England.

Bishop William Joseph McDonald (at the time of writing to Merton, Msgr. William J. McDonald) was Editor-in-Chief of the «New Catholic Encyclopedia» and asks Merton to contribute. Merton sends an article on spiritual direction. McDonald writes from Washington, D.C.

Vincent F. McGee writes from New York.

Peggy McKenna was a homemaker writing from Orange, Texas.

Henry A. McKervey writes to the editor of «Harper's» from Spokane, Washington, in response to "Apologies to an Unbeliever", published in the November 1966 issue of «Harper's Magazine» (and later appeared with a related article in the book Faith and Violence).

Fr. John McNearney was a doctoral student at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and was writing a dissertation called "The Relation between Prayer and Involvement in the World". He asked if Merton would send him a bibliography of his works so he could include some of it as source material.

Robert F. W. Meader was Director of the Shaker Museum Foundation in Old Chatham, New York.

Sr. Xristine Anne Marie van der Meer de Walcheren was a Benedictine religious sister writing from Notre Dame Abbey in Oosterhout, the Netherlands.

Gianni Menarini was Editor of «Il Tarocco», an Italian magazine of literature and art. He asks Merton for a poem and a statement on the relationship between religion and poetry.