The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University



Advanced Search 


Merton's Correspondence with:

David Dellinger; Liberation, to the editors of Liberation magazine; David T. Dellinger

Dellinger, David T., 1915-2004  printer

 
 

Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence
Dates of materials: 1961
Volume: 2 item(s); 2 pg(s)

Scope and Content

Biography

At the time of Merton's letter to Dellinger, he was publisher and editor of Liberation magazine (Merton seemingly did not know Dellinger and addresses the letter "To the editor of Liberation"). Born into a prominent New England Republican family in 1815, Dellinger seemed destined to be a leader in the capitalist system he would later oppose. After earning an economics degree from Yale, he spent a year in Yale's Divinity School and another year in Union Theological Seminary in New York. Although he did not follow a vocation to the Christian clergy, he seems to have formulated a pacifist stand during these years and refused military conscription in 1940. He served a year in federal prison for this offense and later two more years for draft resistance during the Second World War. After founding a co-operative community with a farm and a newspaper, he founded Liberation magazine in 1956. The magazine was well-respected in the political left for its coverage of war resistance, social justice, and was one of the first national publications to recognize the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement. He achieved some of his greatest notoriety during his protests of the Vietnam War, helping organize the first major protest against the Vietnam War in New York, the October 1965 Fifth Avenue Peace Parade. An organizer of the protest at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he was arrested with others who became known as the Chicago Seven. (Source: "Dellinger, David." Obituary from Current Biography. 2004. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 5 Oct. 2006. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.

Related Information and Links

See also one published letter from Merton to Dellinger in Witness to Freedom, pp. 95-96; and see also Sub-Section D.1, "Cuba Project" for published letter.

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

Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"


#DateFrom/ToFirst LinesPub ✓Notes
 y/m/dMerton Scan ✉ 
1. 1961/12/31 (#01) TL[c] from Merton The San Francisco to Moscow Peace Walk was probably the most significant single measure of moral [misdated in published letters as 1961/12/30] «detailed view»
2. 1961/12/31 (#02) TALS[x] from Merton The San Francisco to Moscow Peace Walk was probably the most significant single measure of moral [misdated in published letters as 1961/12/30] «detailed view»

Printer-Friendly Version   Return to the Top of the Page