Catch of Anti-letters, A.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a writer and Trappist monk at Our Lady of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky. His writings include such classics as The Seven Storey Mountain, New Seeds of Contemplation, and Zen and the Birds of Appetite. Merton is the author of more than seventy books that include poetry, personal journals, collections of letters, social criticism, and writings on peace, justice, and ecumenism.

Robert Lax was a minimalist poet and Merton's closest friend from his Columbia University days. Bob Lax was born in Olean, New York, into a Jewish family. His family later moved to New York. At Columbia, he met Merton through mutual involvement in the university's humorous magazine, «The Columbia Jester». Lax's spirituality influenced Merton's acceptance of religion and conversion to Catholicism in 1938, Lax having later been influenced by Merton and converting to Catholicism in 1943. The two friends stayed in contact after graduating from Columbia and spent time together with Ed Rice at a cottage in Olean after Merton finished his Masters degree in 1939. Lax attended Merton's ordination to the priesthood in 1949. Lax wrote for and edited such magazines as «Pax» and «Jubilee» and was on staff at «The New Yorker». In 1962, he went into self-imposed exile from the United States and lived much of his life until his later years on the Greek islands of Patmos, Lesvos and Kalymnos. He returned to Olean, New York, in the summer of 2000, where he died in his sleep on September 26. (Sources: «The Road to Joy», p. 142; and The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, p. 249.)