Paul Cuneo was Book Editor for «America» magazine and writes from New York.
Fr. John Daly was writing as a member of the National Association for Pastoral Renewal. He was writing from St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked at Barnes Hospital.
Sr. Mary Damiano writes from a Franciscan convent in Uganda.
Anna Danell writes to Merton from Strängnäs, Sweden. Johan Danell, a brother of the Taizé community in France, met Merton in the summer of 1967.
Fr. Clément de Bourbon writes from the Cistercian Abbey of Santa María de Viaceli in Spain. He was secretary to Abbot General Gabriel Sortais.
Fr. Roger De Ganck first rights from the Trappist abbey of Westmalle in Belgium. Later, he has relocated to the new Trappist foundation of Redwoods Abbey in California.
Norman R. De Puy was editor of «Mission: The American Baptist Magazine» from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Fr. Jean-Marie Déchanet was a monk of Sint-Andriesabdij (Abbaye de Saint-André) near Bruges, Belgium. In 1956, he wrote the book «Christian Yoga». By his 1961 letters, he was living in a monastic foundation in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Moshe Decter was executive secretary for the Conference on the Status of Soviet Jews and writes from New York.
Valerie Delacorte was writing from New York.
John J. Delaney was an editor for Doubleday and Company in New York.
Fr. Jean Delat writes from the Trappist monastery of the Abbaye Sainte Marie du Désert in France.
At the time of Merton's letter to Dellinger, he was publisher and editor of «Liberation» magazine (Merton seemingly did not know Dellinger and addresses the letter "To the editor of Liberation"). Born into a prominent New England Republican family in 1815, Dellinger seemed destined to be a leader in the capitalist system he would later oppose. After earning an economics degree from Yale, he spent a year in Yale's Divinity School and another year in Union Theological Seminary in New York. Although he did not follow a vocation to the Christian clergy, he seems to have formulated a pacifist stand during these years and refused military conscription in 1940. He served a year in federal prison for this offense and later two more years for draft resistance during the Second World War. After founding a co-operative community with a farm and a newspaper, he founded «Liberation» magazine in 1956. The magazine was well-respected in the political left for its coverage of war resistance, social justice, and was one of the first national publications to recognize the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement. He achieved some of his greatest notoriety during his protests of the Vietnam War, helping organize the first major protest against the Vietnam War in New York, the October 1965 Fifth Avenue Peace Parade. An organizer of the protest at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he was arrested with others who became known as the Chicago Seven. (Source: "Dellinger, David." Obituary from Current Biography. 2004. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 5 Oct. 2006. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
Fr. Don Derivaux, known in his 18 years at Gethsemani as Francis, had later left the Trappists to become a priest in Mississippi. In 1965, while still with Gethsemani and studying in Rome, Merton writes and tells him of events at the abbey and of racial tensions in the south. Though he considers becoming laicized in his letter of 1968 to Merton, he remained a priest and has recently retired as a hermit.
Christopher Derrick became editor of «Good Work», a publication of the Catholic Art Association. He writes from England.
Fr. Richard Devine was a Vincentian priest and dean of the graduate school at St. John's University in New York.
Dom Willibrord-Christian van Dijk was abbot of the Trappist Abbey of Tilburg in the Netherlands from 1945-1966, during which time he founded the monastery at Rawa Seneng in Indonesia, first visiting in 1952. He returned to Indonesia as superior from 1966-1968, when he had to resign due to an eye disease. He later moved to the Maria Frieden Abbey to live with the Trappistine sisters there in Germany. He regretted having to leave for Germany before Merton could have made it to see him in Asia.
Fr. Anselme Dimier was a Cistercian monk and author, first writing to Merton from the Abbey of Tamié in France and later from the Abbey of Scourmont in Belgium. Much of the discussion concerns a French translation of «The Waters of Siloë».
Sr. Irmá Dionísia was writing from Curitiba, Brazil.
Ray DiPalma is the author of a number of books of poetry. Merton was considering a poem of his for «Monks Pond».
According to a letter in this file from Br. Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O. dated 2001, Fr. James Dodge (known as Frater Linus while with the Trappists) was a novice with Merton in 1941-1942. He later went to Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina after its founding in 1949. After staying at Mepkin a few years, he left to become a parish priest.
Fr. Linus was a monk of Gethsemani Abbey writing to Merton while away at studies in Rome.
Joseph Dolan was administrative assistant to Robert F. Kennedy while Kennedy was serving as a United States Senator from New York.
Pierre Dommerques was an Assistant Professor at the Sorbonne in the Institute of English and American Studies at the time of corresponding with Merton.
Fr. Felix Donahue was a Trappist monk of Gethsemani. At the time of correspondence, he was studying in Rome and trying to vote by proxy in the abbatial election to replace Dom James Fox. He would later join the Trappist foundation of Nossa Senhora do Novo Mundo in Brazil.
Ivanhoe Donaldson was working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while corresponding with Merton. He worked alongside another Merton correspondent from this time, Marion Barry, who would later become mayor of Washington, D.C. He served as an advisor to Barry from the sixties to the eighties and was involved in Jesse Jackson's 1984 presidential campaign.
Professor Filippo Donini was Director of the Institute of Italian Culture at the Italian Embassy in New York.
Jude Patrick Dougherty was writing from Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky.
Dom Pierre Doyère was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Saint-Paul de Wisques in France.
Camille Drevet writes from Paris. She was part of Les Amis de Gandhi (Friends of Gandhi), a group founded by Louis Massignon. She was author of the book Par les routes humaines. (Source: «Witness to Freedom», p. 97.)
Sr. Diane Du Christ was from the Dominican monastery at Dax in southwestern France.
Professor Eleanor Duckett writes from Northampton, Massachusetts.
Joseph Duffy was publishing director for P. J. Kenedy and Sons publishers in New York.
Fr. George Dunne was a Jesuit priest at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Suzanne Edgell was a teacher with the United States Department of Defense and stationed in the Philippines.
Sr. Karen Edmund was a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet from Binghamton, New York.
Sr. Mary Elizabeth of the Trinity was sub-prioress and novice mistress of the Monastery of Discalced Carmelites in Boston, Massachusetts.
Elisabeth G. Ellis was writing on behalf of Naomi Burton Stone with some editorial questions about «Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander».
Dorothy Emmet was the author of a number of books on philosophy and helped found the department of philosophy at the University of Manchester, where she served as head of the department. After retiring from her professorship, she settled in Cambridge in 1966. There she became the first editor of the journal «Theoria to Theory», to which Merton was a contributor. She was interested in philosophy's application to political and social issues and "taught Plato to unemployed Welsh miners" (source: «Obituary: Dorothy Emmet». 25 September 2000. «The Guardian». Accessed 2 December 2004. ‹http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,373005,00.html›).
Ricardo Espinoza writes from Lima, Peru.
Yara Esteves writes from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
James M. Ethridge was editor of «Contemporary Authors», which compiles reference volumes on biographical information about authors.
Hermene Evans writes from Chicago on behalf of the Peace Study Union.
Fr. Illtud Evans was a Dominican priest and popular retreat master from Cambridge, England. He did editorial work for «Blackfriars» (after 1964, «New Blackfriars»), a publication of the English Dominicans. Many of Evans' letters speak of his travels for the retreats he was giving, including a trip to the Holy Land. In 1966, he moved to St. Albert's College in Oakland, California. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 196.)
Eugene Exman was an editor for Harper and Brothers (by 1962, Harper and Row). He writes from New York.
Mario Falsina was a student at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy, and was living in Bergamo. He was writing a thesis on Merton and asks him six questions to which Merton replies.
Fr. Hugh Farmer was a Benedictine monk of Quarr Abbey on the northern coast of the Isle of Wight.
Sr. Felicitas was an American Benedictine nun who had asked Merton about racial integration for monasteries (source: «The School of Charity», p. 218).
W. H. Ferry, also known as Ping Ferry, was vice-president of the Center for Democratic Institutions at Santa Barbara from 1954-1969. In 1961, Merton first wrote to W. H. Ferry, having been introduced to pamphlets produced by the Center for Democratic Institutions by James Laughlin. This began a dialog between the two that continued through the rest of Merton's life. Ferry first came to visit Gethsemani in November of 1964 for a meeting with the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and others on peace that was attended by Daniel and Philip Berrigan, A. J. Muste, John Howard Yoder, among others. Ferry drove Merton along the northern California coast as Merton scoped out areas for a possible new hermitage. He was also present to see Merton off when his flight left for Asia. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 201.)
Ed Finnigan writes from Chicago, Illinois.
James T. Flanagan was an attorney with the law offices of Driscoll, Flanagan and Ramos from New Orleans, Louisiana.
David Ford was an editor at New Directions publishing in Norfolk, Connecticut.
John J. Ford succeeded William Dwyer as attorney for the Merton Legacy Trust, which drew up Merton's will and made agreements about the use of his artistic estate after his death.
Linda married James Forest in 1967 and briefly corresponded with Merton.
Br. Dunstan Foretich was a Trappist monk at Gethsemani. He seemed to have been serving as a typist for Merton until he left the monastery in 1966.
Sr. Franciscana was a Franciscan sister at St. Anthony Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky.
Jerome D. Frank was a psychiatrist at Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic in Baltimore, Maryland.
Claude Fredericks was a typesetter and printer of fine books who founded Banyan Press in the late 1940s.
Roberto Friol is a Cuban poet who sent some of his work to Merton.
Jim Frost was a sophomore in high school in Waterloo, Iowa.
Pietro Cardinal Fumasoni-Biondi was Prefect of the Promulgation of the Faith. He writes from Castel Gandolfo and Vatican City.
Gary Gagner, a former novice at Gethsemani, was applying for conscientious objector status during the Vietnam War and was being assisted by Jim Forest and the Catholic Peace Fellowship. Merton wrote a letter on Gagner's behalf (in the "Forest, Jim" file). Gagner was stationed at Fr. Dix in New Jersey.
Thomas Gallagher was an editor with Magi Books in Albany, New York.
Fr. Bernard Gaynon was a Trappist monk writing from Canada.
Fr. Agostino Gemelli was a Franciscan writing from Milan, Italy, to pass along thanks from Msgr. Dell'Acqua for Merton's contribution to a book in honor of Pope Pius XII's 80th birthday. Gemelli authored books on such subjects as Marxism, psychology and Franciscan spirituality.
Rabbi Everett Gendler was a Jewish religious leader involved in the anti-war movement and the Civil Rights movement who worked closely with Rabbi Abraham Heschel and Martin Luther King in the later. He was later described as "the father of Jewish environmentalism".
Sandra George writes as Librarian for the Bruce Publishing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Sr. Marie Germaine Du Sacre Coeur was a Dominican from Oullins, France.
Sr. Gertrude Anne was a Sister of the Holy Cross writing from St. Mary's Convent in Notre Dame, Indiana.