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Kenneth Seeman Giniger was head of the Layman's National Bible Committee, publisher of "The Catholic Bible in the St. Peter's Edition."

Robert Ginsberg is a Professor of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. He included Merton's essay "War and the Crisis of Language" in a book he edited, entitled «The Critique of War: Contemporary Philosophical Explorations».

Robert Giroux was one of Merton's friends from his Columbia University days. While Giroux was with Harcourt, Brace publishers, he reviewed and rejected some of Merton's early novels. After seeing «The Seven Storey Mountain», he decided to take a chance on this book which turned out to be a surprise best seller and launched Merton's career as a writer. In 1955, he joined Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, which became Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1964. He later took the role as a trustee for Merton's literary estate.

Alberto Girri was a poet, prose writer, and literary translator from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Like Jorge Luis Borges, he used metaphysics and mysticism in his writings, but uses these as a tool of contemporary criticism. He published many volumes of poetry and was a regular contributor to Victoria Ocampo's magazine, «Sur».

At the time of writing, Rochelle Girson was Book Review Editor for the «Saturday Review». She writes from New York.

Martha Gisi writes from Schaffhauserrheinweg, Switzerland.

At the time of writing to Merton, David Glanz was an Editor of the Washington University student publication, «Freelance».

Tommy Glover was a former monk of Gethsemani Abbey, known as Br. Joshua, and one of the few African Americans at the monastery.

Wilbur Glover writes as Director of Shaker Community, Inc. in Hancock, Massachusetts, informing Merton of the death of Edward Deming Andrews.

Banks O. Godfrey, Jr. writes from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

A. Goettman writes from Saint-Avold in France.

Don Gold writes as Assistant to the Editor of «Holiday» magazine.

Fausto Gomes Romáo writes to Merton from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

José Gómez-Sicre was of the Visual Arts Section of the Organization of American States.

Fr. Thomas Aquinas Gondal writes from the Trappist Abbey of Tre Fontane in Rome.

Denys Gorce writes from Grenade-sur-Adour, France.

Fr. Jim Gorman was a Sulpician priest at St. Thomas Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Fr. Norbert Gorrissen was a Trappist monk of the monastery of Orval in southern Belgium. He inquires about contemporary problems in monasticism. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 229.)

Louise Gosho wrote to Dorothy Day and asked to pass her letter to Thomas Merton. She was from Renton, Washington.

Jean and Hildegard Goss-Mayr have long been advocates of non-violence and pillars of the peace movement. Hildegard was born in Vienna, and Jean was originally from France. They worked with Cardinal Ottaviani to craft documents of the Second Vatican Council in opposition to modern war. They shared with Merton an interest in Latin America and worked to bring non-violence change. In the 1980's, they promoted a peaceful end to the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. Members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Hildegard was named honorary president of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). Jean and Hildegard visited Merton at Gethsemani in 1965. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», pp. 324-325.)

Howard B. Gotlieb was Chief of Reference and Special Collections at Boston University. He became director of the collection in 1963, and in 2003, the repository was named after him.

James A. Gould was Chairman of the University of South Florida Department of Philosophy. He writes from Tampa.

Raphael (Ray) Gould visited Merton at Gethsemani in May of 1966 along with John Heidbrink and Thich Nhat Hanh. After that visit, Gould writes Merton on behalf of the International Committee of Conscience on Vietnam of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). In 1967, he is listed as Director of Development of the FOR. He writes from the FOR headquarters in Nyack, New York.

Denis Goulet was the Visiting Associate Professor in Government and Education at Indiana University in Bloomington at the time of correspondence with Merton. Since 1979, he has served as O'Neill Professor in Education for Justice in the Department of Economics at Notre Dame University and is Faculty Fellow for both the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Sr. Grace was with the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan.

Sr. Grace was a Sister of St. Helena writing from a convent in Versailles, Kentucky.

Dom Aelred Graham was a Benedictine monk from Ampleforth Abbey in England. From 1951-1967, he served as superior of the Portsmouth Priory in Rhode Island. All letters by Graham are addressed from Portsmouth, Rhode Island, except the 1968 letters and others as noted. (Source: Obituary of Fr. Aelred Graham from the Ampleforth Abbey Library by Fr. Patrick Barry, O.S.B., ‹http://www.monlib.org.uk/obits/barry/graham_a.htm›.)

Linda Gramatky was writing from New York on behalf of the publishers Doubleday and Company while Naomi Burton Stone was away from the office.

Julien Green lived in France for most of his life and was born in Paris in 1900 of American parents. Merton's «Raids on the Unspeakable» contains an essay on Green's 1961 novel «Chaque homme dans sa nuit», and Green disputes him on some of Merton's criticism.

Marlon D. Green became the first African-American to be hired as a commercial pilot for a major airline. He was an experienced Air Force pilot, and though there was a need for pilots after World War II, minorities were not being hired for pilot positions in civilian life. He protested these discriminatory practices since the late 1950's, but was not hired until the Supreme Court ruled in his favor in 1963.

Jonathan Greene was born in New York, but has spent most of his career living in Kentucky as a poet, author, publisher and free-lance designer. While corresponding with Merton, he was a designer for University of Kentucky Press in Lexington. He was the founder of Gnomon Press. He currently lives on a farm near Frankfort, Kentucky.

Fr. Réginald Grégoire was a Benedictine priest and writes from Rome.

David Grewe was a seminary student at Cardinal Glennon College in St. Louis, Missouri.

Roberto Gri was an Italian student writing to Merton to ask his advice about how one should study.

James Gribble was Associate Director of the University of Kentucky Libraries at the time of correspondence with Thomas Merton.

Dan Griffin was Assistant Editor of «Ave Maria», a "national Catholic weekly... published by the Holy Cross Fathers." He writes from Notre Dame, Indiana.

Gregory Griffin was the son of John Howard Griffin. He did some photographic processing for Merton. He writes from Fort Worth, Texas.

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.

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›)

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.

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.

Maria (Mary) Groman writes from Warsaw, Poland.

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.

Sharon Grossman writes as President of the National Federation of Catholic College Students from Washington, D.C.

Dr. Gerald Groves was a former monk of Gethsemani. He wrote the book «Up and Down Merton's Mountain».

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.

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. Jean Guénnou writes from the Missions Étrangères in Paris.

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».

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.)

Brijen K. Gupta was a visiting professor from India at the University of Cincinnati's NDEA World History Institute.

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.

Romuald Gustaw was a Franciscan from the Library of the Catholic University in Lublin, Poland.

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.

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.

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.)

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».

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.

The Honorable Shinzo Hamai was Mayor of Hiroshima, Japan.

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.

Fr. Hamman was a Franciscan writing from Notre Dame des Buis in Besançon, France.

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.

Veronica (Moni) Hammer was a daughter of Victor Hammer and writes from Vienna, Austria.

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.)

Jim Hampton writes from the Bluegrass Bureau in Lexington, Kentucky, of the Louisville newspaper «The Courier-Journal».

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.

Monsignor James J. Hammon was Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Natchez, Mississippi.

Charles Hansel was Director of Religious Life at Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky.

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.

Patricia Hardesty was writing a piece for the «Saturday Evening Post» on Henry Miller. She writes from Mill Valley, California.

Vincent Harding and his wife Rosemarie Freeney Harding were leaders in the Southern Freedom Movement during the Civil Rights struggle of the 1950's and 1960's. He has written a number of books, including «Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero», and served as a senior academic consultant to the highly-acclaimed Eyes on the Prize series on PBS. In 1997, he and Rosemarie Freeney Harding founded the Veterans of Hope project, which gathers the wisdom of elder pioneers in civil rights and social justice for future generations. Harding is Professor Emeritus of Religion and Social Transformation at Illiff School of Theology in Denver.

Fr. Franciscus Hardjawijata was Novice Master at the Trappist monastery at Rawaseneng, Indonesia.

Sr. Katherine T. Hargrove, also known as Mother Hargrove, was a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and was editor of some books on Jewish-Christian relations. She writes from Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in Purchase, New York.

Fr. Bernard Haring writes from the Lateran Pontifical University in Rome.