The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Berry, Wendell, 1934-

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Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1967-1968

Volume: 9 item(s); 9 pg(s)

Scope and Content

This set of correspondence contains nine letters between two like-minded poets and authors. In his correspondence with Berry, one can see seeds of Merton's interest in the environment. One can only guess at the directions in this vein that his friendship with Berry might have led him. Among the letters are original typed and handwritten letters by Berry, and carbon copies of Merton's letters.

Biography

Wendell Berry is a farmer and writer of poetry, novels, prose, and essays. He writes to Merton from Port Royal, Kentucky. Themes in his writings include concern for the land, environmental conservation, the value of work, and the culture of agricultural communities. Merton began a correspondence with Berry as he began to come of his own as a poet and author. Berry had returned to a family farm in his native Kentucky and was a professor at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Merton could appreciate Berry's simple life of nature and solitude on a farm and employing traditional agricultural means, both critical of the effects of modern farm machinery on rural life. Though Berry claimed that his poems could only loosely be considered haiku, Merton referred to them as such and included some in his magazine Monks Pond. Berry shared Merton's opposition to Vietnam and knew many of Merton's friends from Lexington.

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

See also contributions to Monks Pond, pp. 96 and 215.

Other Finding Aids

If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
   

Series List

This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.

Container List

SeriesDateTypeTo/FromFirst LinesPubFull TextNotes
 1967/10/24 HLSto MertonDenise Levertov thinks it would be great to see you at Gethsemani when she's here on Sunday, Dec. 10  possible meeting at Gethsemani with Denise Levertov, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Madelyn Meatyard, Guy and Bonnie [Davenport?]
 1967/10/26 TL[c]from MertonThanks for your note about Denise Levertov and the possibility of her visit here on Sunday December  plans for meeting at Gethsemani
 1968/01/31 TL[c]from MertonWhat keeps me from writing more is that I never know if Port Royal Kentucky is enough of an address.  question about Berry's address / plans to use monastic press to publish a magazine of poetry and short prose - <u>Monks Pond</u> - "I don't think a monastic press should be confined to cheese and liturgy." / Asian, Indian, and African texts - Zen texts / proposed visit by Harry Caudill
 1968/02/07 HLSto MertonThe home address is Port Royal, Ky. 40058. And that's usually the best one to use.  Berry speaking at Kentucky Conference on the War and the Draft / <u>Monks Pond</u> / talking with Harry Caudill about scandal of strip mining
 1968/02/11 TLSto MertonThese have all been written since the first of the year. The little poems can be called haiku only  response to copy of Merton's "Comment: re FORUM" - likes Merton's idea of living as an experiment of a "non-organization man" / observations of a woodpecker / Conference on the War at the University of Kentucky - conference had an early Christian feeling
 1968/02/28 TL[c]from MertonMany thanks for the fine poems. I want to try the two longer ones and the little Feb.2. in the next  likes winter Haiku, but does not want to use them until the season of winter returns / asks for contributor's notes / proposes get-together after Easter (after April 14th)
 1968/04/08 TLSto MertonI enclose a check, a blank for transfer of copyright on the poem "Envoy" that you accepted for  check for "Envoy" poem for <u>Monks Pond</u> / hopes to visit Gethsemani in the spring
 1968/04/22 TL[c]from MertonThe second issue is in the works with envoy etc and I will in due course send the form along to  copyright / Robert Lax at a college in South Dakota - will not be free until June - proposes meeting then
 1968/08/06 HLSto MertonWe're trying to get ready to leave here for the West Coast on the 20th of this month. We hoped to  sending some winter haiku from before / poem from book on farming
        

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