Louis Zukofsky was a poet and professor of English, who was born in New York, where he also spent his professional life. His poetry of the 1930's was considered part of the "objectivist" movement and associated with the work of William Carlos Williams and Ezra Pound. Later, he was rediscovered by the Black Mountain poets. He is known for the collection of poems, entitled "A", which spanned his whole writing career from the 1920's to the 1970's and was published the year of his death. (Source: "Zukofsky, Louis." World Authors. 1975. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 4 Oct. 2006. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
Vera Zorina (born Eva Brigitta Hartwig) was a dancer and actress born in Berlin in 1917. In 1933, she was discovered in London by representatives of the Ballet Russe, Leonide Massine and Colonel de Basil, who gave her stage name. The Goldwyn Follies in 1938 launched her movie career. She was at one time married to famous ballet choreographer George Balanchine. She writes to Merton under Brigitta Lieberson (the last name was of her second husband, Goddard Lieberson). She sends Merton a recording she did of Hérodiade, but is concerned that it is not appropriate for a monastic audience. Merton expresses his enjoyment in the recording and continues to correspond with Zorina.
Alexandra Zoretkin writes from Washington, D.C.
At the time of writing to Merton, Robert Zmuda was an 18 year old student from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He sent some poems, one of which Merton published in «Monks Pond». After graduation from high school, he planned to go into Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA).
Sr. Jean Zmolek was a School Sister of Notre Dame from Notre Dame Academy in Omaha, Nebraska, at the time of writing to Merton.
Vittorio Emanuele Zino writes from New York.
Gregory Zilboorg was a prominent psychiatrist and convert to Catholicism. Merton obtained a rare permission to leave Gethsemani to hear Gregory Zilboorg lecture at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. Merton spoke privately to Zilboorg of his desire for more solitude and to live as a hermit at Gethsemani or to leave if that were not possible. Zilboorg considered his feelings pathological, a message Dom James, Merton's abbot, was happy to hear. It is questionable whether Zilboorg's harsh criticism, some of which may be defended, was unbiased. Merton's pre-monastic interest in Sigmund Freud was rekindled, and Zilboorg may have felt threatened by another prominent Catholic convert writing on the subject. Zilboorg writes to Merton from New York. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, p. 550.)
Gordon C. Zahn was a sociologist and pacifist who has written books and articles about peace studies, dissent from war cultures, Catholic dissenters in the Second World War in Germany, and other topics. From 1956-1957, he spent a year under a Fulbright grant at Julius Maximilian University in Würzburg, Germany, to study Catholic dissenters under Hitler. During this time, he discovered the Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian whose refusal to fight under Nazi rule led him to martyrdom. He writes to Merton from Chicago, where he was a professor at Loyola University. In 1964, he published his book on Jägerstätter entitled, In Solitary Witness. After a professorship at University of Massachusetts in Boston from 1967-1980, he became National Director of Pax Christi USA, part of Pax Christi International, a Catholic peace organization. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 648.)
Fr. Janko Zagar was a Dominican priest, Prior of St. Albert's College in Oakland, California, and Editor of «Season», a "quarterly on contemporary human problems".
Msgr. Vincent Arthur Yzermans took over as editor of «Our Sunday Visitor» and its affiliate magazine, «The Priest», in the fall of 1967. He was a priest from Minnesota.
June Yungblut is a Quaker and scholar with graduate degrees from Yale and Emory. Her ancestry with the Society of Friends (Quakers) dates back to Thomas Fitzwater, who came to America aboard the Welcome alongside William Penn. At the time of writing to Merton, she was co-director of the Quaker House in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband John Yungblut. She and her husband were involved in the Civil Rights Movement and were friends of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. June Yungblut attempted to arrange a retreat for Martin Luther King, Jr. at Gethsemani Abbey; however, King was not able to come because of the situation in Memphis which culminated in his assassination. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 635.)
John Yungblut is a Quaker scholar and scholar of Jungian psychology. One of his academic aims is arguing for the place of Christian mysticism. He was married to June Yungblut. He writes from the Quaker House (Society of Friends) in Atlanta, Georgia, which he co-directed with his wife, June.
Archbishop Paul Yü Pin, later elevated to Cardinal, was Archbishop of Nanking (Nanjing), China. He was opposed to the Chinese Communist government and was living in Taipei, Taiwan. He had an assignment from the Holy See to re-establish Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan.
Marguerite Yourcenar was a Belgian-born French novelist. She sends Merton her book «L'Oeuvre au Noir» in 1968.
Peggy Young writes on behalf of Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, in New York.
At the time of writing, Chris Young was a 13-year-old who was planning to enter a high school seminary and someday wanted to be a Trappist monk. A fan of Merton's writings, he wanted to be a writer himself and sent Merton copies of two pieces he had written.
Bonnie Young was Assistant Curator of the Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Alfred F. Young was a history professor at Northwestern University. He co-signs the letter with another history professor, Christopher Lasch, of Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, Illinois.
Philip Griggs writes to Merton from Carmichael, California. He later joined the Ramakrishna Vedanta Center in London, England. Between his correspondence in 1965 and 1971, he had taken the name Swami Yogeshananda. He was in his later years the director of the Vedanta Center of Atlanta.
John Howard Yoder was a Mennonite theologian whose writings on Christianity, ethics, politics, and opposition to war, were influential throughout the Christian world.
Maurice Yenn was a member of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, a worldwide organization dedicated to spreading the message to the world of the Marian apparition of 1917 at Fatima, Portugal.
J. F. Yañez writes from Universitas, a company of literary agents from Barcelona, Spain.
In the bulk of the correspondence, Lunsford Yandell writes from Jaffrey, New Hampshire, or Scottsdale, Arizona.
Fr. Joseph Minoru Yamaguchi was a Marianist priest writing from Tokyo, Japan.
Nobuzō Yamada writes from Hiroshima, Japan. He mentions visiting Merton at Gethsemani Abbey in 1964. He was likely among the delegation for the World Peace Mission Pilgrimage of Hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Jeannette Yakel writes from Green Island, New York.
Fr. Callistus Yaguchi was a Trappist monk of Our Lady of the Lighthouse monastery in Kamiiso near Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan.
Odette Yagon writes from Bordeaux, France.
Dr. James Wygal was a friend of Merton and served as his psychiatrist during the 1960's. He began work with Gethsemani Abbey's novices in the mid-1950's. For Merton, it may have been an excuse to see a friend and go to Louisville as therapy. He notes in his journals about listening to jazz records with Wygal and once going instead of his appointment with Fr. John Loftus of Bellarmine College to see live jazz. Besides his professional contact with Merton, Wygal served as part of the group raising money for a Merton Room at Bellarmine College.
Fr. Augustine Wulff was a Trappist monk of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky.
John Wu, Jr. is a professor of philosophy and English literature at Chinese Culture University in Taiwan. He is the son of John C. H. Wu.
Born in Ningpo, China, Jingxiong (or Ching-hsiung) Wu attended law schools in the United States and Europe in the late 1920's becoming a friend of the young Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., later to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He had westernized his name, going by John. He became a wealthy lawyer and judge in Shanghai, but had a spiritual crisis in the late 1930's. During this time, he read St. Thèrése of Lisieux's «Story of a Soul». This had a profound effect on Wu. Some sources give this time as his conversion to Christianity and baptism, others say his baptism was earlier but that this was still a crucial time in his faith life. In the late 1940's, he lived in Rome with his wife Teresa and his 13 children while serving as Chinese delegate to the Vatican. As an official of President Chiang Kai-shek, he was not able to return to China after the Communist revolution. A scholar of jurisprudence, philosophy, literature, religious studies, and cultural studies, he served as dean of the College of Chinese Culture in Taiwan and a research professor at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. (Sources: [1]The Hidden Ground of Love, p. 611. Augustine, John. [2] "John C. H. Wu." Website of Christ the Eternal Tao. Accessed at Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY, 26 Sep. 2006. ‹http://www.geocities.com/johnaugus/taowu.html›. [3] Elkins, James R. "John C. H. Wu." Strangers to Us All: Lawyers and Poetry. Website of College of Law, West Virginia University. 2 Sep. 2001. Accessed at Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY, 26 Sep. 2006. ‹http://www.wvu.edu/~lawfac/jelkins/lp-2001/wu.html›)
Scott Wright was a student in library science at the University of Minnesota. As part of his coursework, he wrote a paper entitled "The Merton-Mailer Vision".
John Joseph Cardinal Wright was Bishop of Pittsburgh at the time of writing to Merton. During their correspondence in the mid-1960's, the Second Vatican Council was in session, Wright spent much time in Rome. Born in Boston, he became the first bishop of the Worcester diocese after it split from the Springfield, Massachusetts, diocese in 1950. After serving ten years in Pittsburgh, he was elevated to cardinal in 1969 and made the Prefect of Clergy for the Roman Curia.
Jeanne Adams Wray was Managing Editor of the «Cimarron Review», Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Susan Woolfson was an editorial assistant at «Worldview», "a journal of religion and international affairs". She writes from New York.
Cecil Woolf and John Bagguley were editors of the book «Authors Take Sides on Vietnam». The book asked a range of authors to address the following questions: "Are you for, or against, the intervention of the United States in Vietnam?"; and "How, in your opinion, should the conflict in Vietnam be resolved?". Other authors in the volume included: W. H. Auden; William F. Buckley, Jr.; William S. Burroughs; Lawrence Ferlinghetti; and Allen Ginsberg. The book was modeled after «Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War», published in 1937, and compiled by Nancy Cunard. Woolf and Bagguley write to Merton from London.
Helen Wolff was a publisher at Pantheon Books, United States publisher of Boris Pasternak's «Dr. Zhivago». Her husband, Kurt Wolff, had established publishing houses in Germany and Italy. They immigrated to the United States in 1941, establishing Pantheon Books. In 1961, they moved to Harcourt Brace in New York, establishing the "Helen and Kurt Wolff Book" imprint. Kurt Wolff died in 1963. Helen continued work at Harcourt Brace until her death in 1994.
Princess Monica Wittgenstein writes from Cologne, Germany.
Frances Witlin writes on behalf of the Good-Will Ambassadors for the Hiroshima-Nagasaki World Peace Study Mission.
William Witherup is a poet, playwright and performance artist. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Richland, Washington. He writes to Merton from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and living in a cabin in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. He has published a number of volumes of poetry. His poetry has focused on labor, environmentalism, and his father's working-class life in the nuclear industry. (Source: "William Witherup." Contemporary Authors Online. 2002. Literature Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Bellarmine University Lib., Louisville, Kentucky. 15 Sep. 2006 ‹http://galenet.galegroup.com›.)
Dom Damasus Winzen was a Benedictine monk of Maria Laach Abbey in Germany until the rise of Hitler. He moved to the United States and first writes to Merton while at Regina Laudis Abbey in Bethlehem, Connecticut, in 1950. In 1951, he founded Mount Saviour Monastery in Elmira, New York. The monastery was founded on principles of simplicity and equality without traditional divisions between choir monks and lay brothers, all sharing in the raising of sheep. (Source: «The School of Charity», p. 18.)
Dom Jacques Winandy was born in Liege, Belgium, in the early 20th century and became a Benedictine monk Clervaux Abbey in Luxemburg. This was a compromise for him. His father wanted him to enter a Benedictine abbey closer to home rather than follow his dreams of becoming a Carthusian. Carthusians are a monastic order living in community but spending most of the day, besides Mass and two of offices of prayer, in solitude in one's cell. During World War II, the monks of Clervaux lived in exile in religious houses in Belgium. Winandy was excepted as a Carthusian during this time; however, he was elected as abbot of Clervaux immediately after the war, a role he reluctantly accepted. He served as abbot until 1957. He spent time as a hermit before, after a year in Rome, being sent to the Benedictine abbey in Martinique. There he met Br. (now Fr.) Lionel Pare. Pare shared Winandy's interest in the eremitical life. They obtained permission to start of group of hermits, living individually but under the direction of an elder in 1964. They found an amenable bishop, Bishop Remi De Roo and the space for solitude on the Tsolum River in British Columbia, Canada, near Merville. Winandy remained in a hermitage in British Columbia until 1972, when he returned to a hermitage in Belgium, not far from Clervaux Abbey. He spent the next twenty-five years of his life there before his last six months at Clervaux while infirm. Winandy's eremitical life had a profound impact on a revival of the vocation of the hermit in the Catholic Church. (Source: Brandt, M. Charles. "A monk of the Diaspora." The New Catholic Times: 5 Jan 2003.)
Robert Alfred Jump Wilson was owner of the Phoenix Book Shop in New York from 1962 through the late 1980's, where he was an antiquarian bookseller and an author. He currently resides in St. Michaels, Maryland.
Keith Wilson is a poet and professor emeritus and former poet-in-residence from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. His poetry was influenced by his life in the southwest and its native tribes, and the violence Wilson experienced in his tours of duty in the Navy during the Korean War. He has published a number of collections of poetry. (Source: "Keith Wilson." Contemporary Authors Online. 2002. Literature Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Bellarmine University Lib., Louisville, Kentucky. 13 Sep. 2006 ‹http://galenet.galegroup.com›.)
Janice Wilson was a faculty member from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She appreciated hearing about Amiya Chakravarty's trip to Gethsemani Abbey.
Henry F. Wilson was an aspiring writer from Great Falls, Montana.
Brian Wilson writes from Seoul, South Korea. Like Merton, he was an alumnus of Columbia University. He read «Seven Storey Mountain» in 1955 and was a fan of many of Merton's other books. After completing a Master's degree in anthropology from Stanford University in 1959, he took a job teaching English at the Foreign Language College of Korea. Appalled by conditions in the country, especially the plight of children, he began work to help Korean children.
William Carlos Williams was a poet, novelist, playwright and essayist from Rutherford, New Jersey, where he also maintained a pediatric medical practice. (Source: «The Courage for Truth», p. 289.)
Thomas Williams was formerly a novice of Gethsemani. Merton writes to him in 1964, after he had recently left the monastery.
Robert Lawrence Williams was, at the time of writing to Merton, a tenor vocalist. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but writes to Merton from Boston, Massachusetts, and later from New York. He served as president of the Foundation for African Students of Brighton, Massachusetts. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 587.)
Jonathan Williams is a poet, publisher, designer, photographer and essayist, born in Asheville, North Carolina. After studies at Princeton and painting at the Phillips Memorial Gallery, he returned to Asheville to study photography at Black Mountain College. After his return to North Carolina, he became associated with the Black Mountain group of poets and began a publishing venture, the Jargon Society Books. Williams visited Gethsemani Abbey in January of 1967 with Guy Davenport and Ralph Eugene Meatyard. (Source: «The Courage for Truth», p. 284.)
John R. Williams was an assistant professor of English at Southeastern Louisiana College in Hammond, Louisiana.
Galen Williams was executive secretary of The Poetry Center in New York.
Emmett Williams is a poet and a member of the Fluxus movement. He is most known for his concrete poetry. Born in Greenville, South Carolina, he attended Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. After graduation and marriage in 1949, he moved to Europe, where he lived until 1966. He was part of the Darmstadt circle of concrete poetry in Germany. After returning to the United States, he founded Something Else Press in New York. Since then, he had been poet and artist in residence at universities and museums. Besides books of his own poetry, he has been involved in editing, translating and anthologizing poetry for publication. (Source: "Emmett Williams." Contemporary Authors Online. 2005. Literature Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Bellarmine University Lib., Louisville, Kentucky. 8 Sep. 2006 ‹http://galenet.galegroup.com›.)
C. Dickerman Williams was an attorney from New York who helped Merton to find a lawyer in Louisville to assist him with his literary estate. He wrote a letter to Louisville attorney Wilson W. Wyatt.
Sr. Gertrude Wilkinson was Redemptorist superior and editor of the «New Contemplative Review», to which Merton submitted an article.