Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1968-2019 (Creation)
Extent
3 cubic feet; 7 boxes
Name of creator
Biographical history
Br. Patrick Hart was Merton's last secretary. In his earlier years at the monastery, he went by the religious name Br. Simon. He continued to foster Merton's legacy through the interviews he has conducted and through editing many of the collections of Merton's essays, journals, and correspondence.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This collection contains working files and some correspondence related to books edited or written on Thomas Merton by Br. Patrick Hart, O.S.C.O., secretary for Thomas Merton in 1968. He was the general editor for the seven volumes of Merton's journals. Some full issues of periodicals were removed from Accession 1 (reference copied in original order in file) and transferred to Record Group 4.v (Sub-Section D.7). Accession 2 (received May 2016 from Br. Patrick's former office) contained some original correspondence from or to Thomas Merton which was collected in the course of editing «The School of Charity», a small number of photographic prints, and a number of photocopies of letters and manuscripts not previously housed in the Merton Center Collection. In cases where there were original Merton correspondence or photographs, a copy was made and placed in the original order of this collection, but the original letter or photograph was transferred to Record Groups 1 (Section A) and 5.ii (Section F) respectively.
System of arrangement
Original order of files maintained but new groupings of folders were created where identifiable groupings of files were kept together.