The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Burns, Thomas Ferrier, 1906-1995

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Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1962-1966

Volume: 17 item(s); 20 pg(s)

Scope and Content

Biography

T. F. Burns was a founding director of the Tablet publishing company. He worked for, and later became chairman of Burns & Oates publishing company. Both the publisher and the publication were produced for a Catholic audience. However, Burns was not afraid to take some controversial views, such as criticizing Humanae Vitae after the Second Vatican Council. He writes to Merton from London. (Source: "The History of the Tablet - a summary of '1840-1990 A Commemorative History, The Tablet' by Michael Walsh" from The Tablet website.)

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

See also the "Stone, Naomi Burton" file.

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
 1949/11/15 TL[x]to MertonI hope you got my letter of 20th October safely? We are all ready to go ahead with the printing   
 1956/02/01 TL[c] from Burns, Tom / to Graham WatsonThis is just a formal acknowledgment of your letter of the 31st January about THE LIVING BREAD,  [see "Stone, Naomi Burton" file for letter - to Graham Watson of Curtis Brown publishers]
 1962/03/29 TALSto MertonAt long last New Directions have sent me a finished copy of NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION.   
 1963/03/04 TLSto MertonBetty Bartelme, of Macmillan, tells me that they are bringing out a book of yours this Fall, PRAYER  forthcoming book by Merton - <i>Prayer as Worship and Experience</i> by Macmillan / Farrar, Straus - Bob Giroux
 1963/03/11 TL[c]from MertonThanks for your note. I am afraid I don't have a complete typescript of PRAYER AS WORSHIP  complex relations with Farrar, Straus and Cudahy - Bob Giroux / dropping of Curtis Brown / <i>The Merton Reader</i>
 1963/03/22 TLSto MertonMany thanks for yours of the 11th and 13th March. I am afraid we shall just have to let the Chapman  suggests that Naomi Burton Stone act as Merton's literary agent / relations with Farrar, Straus - statement from Roger Straus / book published by Macmillan / <i>The Merton Reader</i>
 1963/07/10 TL[c]from MertonThe immediate purpose of this letter is to let you know that the Nuns of Stanbrook are printing  Nuns of Stanbrook printing a translation of a letter of Guido the Carthusian / dropping book published by Macmillan - <i>Prayer as Worship and Experience</i> - foolishness of fighting with Farrar, Straus over book on prayer / J. Laughlin publishing <i>Emblems of a Season of Fury</i>
 1963/11/13 TAL[c]from MertonForgive my long delay, perhaps no longer than usual, but I have been in the hospital, so I have some  Merton's praise of the Ida Görres Diaries sent by Burns - Görres' response to <i>Sign of Jonas</i> / Görres' book on St. Thérèse of Lisieux / Görres' statement on the "ultra ultra Catholic mind, that tight, closed, prim, infallible, authoritarian, and highly aggressive mind" - death of Diem and Nhu
 1964/03/31 TLSto MertonMany thanks for yours of March 25th. I feel very ashamed of myself for not having written to you  Ida Görres Diaries / Farrar, Straus - Bob Giroux - <i>Seeds of Destruction</i> / sending copy of <i>Ancren Riwle</i>
 1964/04/18 TAL[c]from MertonGlad to hear from you again, and thanks for the clippings. No we don't get the Tablet. But  clippings from <u>Tablet</u> and <u>Ramparts</u> magazines / <i>Merton Reader</i> / visit in May to Gethsemani by the Hibakusha, survivors of Hiroshima
 1964/06/24 TAL[c]from MertonA copy of the Gorres journals arrived yesterday, and I want to thank you also for all the other  meeting with D. T. Suzuki on Zen and Christianity / <i>Seeds of Destruction</i> / Bob Giroux
 1965/07/30 TALSto MertonYour very kind letter of July 17th only increases the sense of guilt I have had for weeks and months  Illtud Evans - speaking to Merton about <i>Seeds of Destruction</i> - Burns suggests leaving out "Religion and Race in the U.S." and "Man is a Gorilla with a Gun" for publication in England
 1965/08/08 TAL[c]from MertonMany thanks for your letter. I am not sure I agree with your idea of leaving out the article on  small book made in England out of "The Christian in World Crisis" and "Christian in Diaspora" / Bob Giroux has a proof of Merton's liturgy book <i>Seasons of Celebration</i> / New Directions - Gandhi and Chuang Tzu
 1965/10/08 TLSto MertonAt long last I think that I have had a brainwave for a title to the book we agreed to make of the  idea to call "The Christian in World Crisis" and "Christian in Diaspora" book <i>Redeeming the Time</i>
 1965/11/27 TL[c]from MertonI do not remember whether or not I answered your letter about writing a special preface for  Merton would like to see a copy of the Second Vatican Council Encyclical "Gaudium et Spes", the Church in the Modern World, before writing preface to <i>Redeeming the Time</i>
 1966/02/15 TL[c]from MertonI am glad you have all the material for <u>Redeeming the Time</u> and happy that everything is now  Merton asks Burns to send his friend, the Muslim scholar Abdul Aziz in Pakistan, a copy of Zaehner's <i>Hindu and Moslem Mysticism</i>
 1966/10/13 TL[c]from MertonProbably copies of REDEEMING THE TIME are on their way but I have not yet seen it. I would in any  asking for some extra copies of <i>Redeeming the Time</i> be sent to him, to Dagmar Henne in Germany and to Jose Maria Valverde
        

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