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Marina de Berg was a dancer and an actress in Paris. Born in Helsinki, Finland to parents of French and Russian orgin, she was orphaned at a young age. She achieved fame early in life as a ballerina and dancer and then as an actress primarily in the latter half of the 1940's. In the early 1950's and some professional setbacks, she questioned her place in the what she called the "wild frivolities" of life in the arts in Paris at the time. She recounts her decision to try a religious vocation with the Trappistine nuns in an autobiographical work, Trois ans à la Trappe in 1959 (translated into English as Heaven by the Hems: From Stage to Cloister, published by Sheed and Ward in 1961). She entered the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Saint-Joseph d'Ubexy, Charmes, France, in August of 1952. After a period of ill health and struggle with the rigors of the lifestyle, she left the nuns and began writing.
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Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"
| # | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| | y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
| 1. |
1960/12/19 |
TLS to Merton |
It's a long time I wanted to write to you again, but I wrote like a mad cap and then time goes and, |
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writing a book, The Invitation / wrote a half funny and half dramatic play / Naomi Burton [Stone] translating "Carnets" / Hans Urs von Balthasar, German Jesuit / St. Bernard
«detailed view» |
| 2. |
undated/no/no (#01) |
HLS to Merton |
Thanks for your nice letter. I wrote immediately to Dom Gabriel and sended [sic] him one copy of |
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asking Merton for addresses of editors / the "crazy city" (Marseille?) is "terribly warm" / finishing Sign of Jonas and reading Sören Kierkegaard's Christian Discourses and Merton's Thoughts in Solitude
«detailed view» |
| 3. |
undated/no/no (#02) |
HLS to Merton |
Please don't be annoyed for me writing again, interrupting the life of silence which is yours… maybe |
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asking if Merton has contacts to get her translated and published in Brazil, Germany and Austria
«detailed view» |
| 4. |
undated/no/no (#03) |
HLS to Merton |
I am awfully sorry but you made a mistake and sended [sic] me a certain letter addressed Sr. U |
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states that she didn't read mistakenly sent letter… but sorry to know that Merton is dealing with censorship [implies de Berg read the letter?] / again is living in a Cistercian monastery in the Pyrenees, then going to Marseille / description of Marseille - no one goes to Mass but "old hags in black"
«detailed view» |
| 5. |
undated/no/no (#04) |
HLS to Merton |
I had a long letter of Dom Sortais… Well!!! Of course it's no…. The letter, well. He doesn't |
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Sortais feels used - that de Berg used him to get Merton to write an introduction / de Berg is finishing a psychological story and beginning a play / reading Thoughts in Solitude
«detailed view» |
| 6. |
undated/no/no (#05) |
HLS to Merton |
Thank you very much for your nice letter and corrections which I sended [sic] immediately to my |
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Michael de St. Picne, director of a Catholic collection and advice about her book / closed herself in a Dominican convent for 5 weeks / writes as night because "lovers always meet at night" / translating her book into English with the help of an American / suggestions of editors
«detailed view» |
| 7. |
undated/no/no (#06) |
HLS to Merton |
I've received your both letters. God bless you for all the good you're doing to me. I am very |
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de Berg went from dancing to "dancing for God", maybe now the monastery / a Jesuit in charge of Etudes is reviewing Carnets de trente veille for theological errors - sending book to Naomi Burton [Stone]
«detailed view» |
| 8. |
undated/no/no (#07) |
HLS to Merton |
Thank you so much for your nice book. I've read |
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beginning a new book / asking if Merton would write a brief introduction to her Trois ans à al trappe
«detailed view» |
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