Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1948-1968 (Creation)
Extent
2 cubic feet
Name of creator
Biographical history
Fr. Irenaeus Herscher was a Franciscan priest from St. Bonaventure College whom Merton knew from the library while teaching there. He is mentioned in The Seven Storey Mountain. Merton continued to request books from St. Bonaventure's library and to keep in contact with Herscher throughout his life at Gethsemani. (Source: «The Road to Joy», p. 295.)
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The bulk of this Sub-Section includes news clippings or copies of full periodicals and journals containing essays, reviews, and poetry by or about Thomas Merton which were kept in a file by Fr. Irenaeus Herscher, O.F.M. (1902-1981), head librarian of Friedsam Memorial Library at St. Bonaventure University in New York, which houses the primary collection of papers by Herscher and one letter between Merton and Herscher.