| Series | Date | Type | To/From | First Lines | Pub | Full Text | Notes |
| | 1948/11/05 | TLS[x] | from Laughlin, James | We are planning to issue an anthology of Catholic poetry, edited by Thomas Merton, and he has asked | |
| |
| | 1961/10/no? | other | from Merton | Thanks for your very fine letters and clipping. I am going to write you when I have a little time. | |
| [Xerox of note written at the top of the first page of an article - "The Machine Gun in the Fallout Shelter" by Merton] |
| | 1961/11/10 | TLS[x] | from Merton | I am very glad to hear that the Pax movement is getting started in this country and that you are | Yes |
| need for action on the peace from / [lack of peace] an apostasy from Christ / New Directions anthology on peace - asking Berrigan for contributions - proposed contributors: Jerome Frank, Erich Fromm, Lewis Mumford, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, Gordon Zahn, Bede Griffiths / proposed meeting on peace |
| | 1961/12/07 | TLS[x] | from Merton | Thanks for your very fine letter and all the other things. I have not yet had a quiet moment in | Yes |
| Charles de Foucauld / Tony Walsh, Gordon Zahn, Lewis Mumford, Erich Fromm / young English Catholics and their book on nuclear weapons and Christian conscience / not yet written to Karl Meyer / proposed talks by Berrigan at Gethsemani, Bellarmine College, Loretto Motherhouse / nuclear war and the Church |
| | 1962/01/15 | TLS[x] | from Merton | We will be looking forward to your Advent in August, around the 10th. By all means bring some of | Yes |
| Berrigan coming around August 10th / Gordon Zahn's contribution to <u>Das Buch</u> / Karl Meyer / Merton's peace writings and the censors / Berrigan's new book and similarities with <i>The New Man</i> / T. E. Maher, Jr. |
| | 1962/01/24? (#01) | TLS | to Merton | Thank you for the material, which I find lucid and reasonable, in the best Merton manner. I am | |
| [no year listed - previously dated 1963/01/24, but contextual evidence makes 1962 more likely] 6 day retreat for 50 college students - their insulation from the real world / reviewing <i>New Seeds of Contemplation</i> for <u>America</u> / International Student Center has 450 students / attaching censors reports for new poems / John Heidbrink |
| | 1962/01/24? (#02) | other | to Merton | Censor <u>A</u> ALL ARE GENUINE POEMS; MANY ARE SUPERB [-] Censor<u>B</u> [sic] These are | |
| [attached to 1963/01/24 letter] Censors approvals of Berrigan's latest poems |
| | 1962/03/10 | TLS[x] | from Merton | My correspondence is a kind of Sisyphus act: rolling the boulder up the hill and then having it | Yes |
| Berrigan's review of <i>The New Man</i> / Berrigan's poems / censors and peace articles / "Vocation" poems by Merton and by Berrigan / John Heidbrink / Douglas Steere / visits by people from Catholic Worker who now are in jail / Benedictine approach to prayer - Oriental approach / poem about the spaceman / Tom Maher |
| | 1962/05/16 | TLS | to Merton | A long overdue note to say hello, and to acknlwedge [sic] yours of a month or more ago. I will not | |
| John Heidbrink - retreat for Presbyterian ministers - Rev. Mr. Muste / Dick Walsh / Merton's peace writings in <u>Commonweal</u> and <u>Jubilee</u> and book, <i>Nuclear Weapons and Christian Conscience</i> / closer to Protestants than Catholics on peace and racial equality / Phillip Berrigan also visiting in August |
| | 1962/06/15 | TLS[x] | from Merton | Probably by now you are in the middle of your retreat with the Protestants at Mount Saviour. May | Yes |
| book by Merton's "favorite Jesuit", Matthew Ricci, and Christian apostolate / "John Heidbrink's Mennonite minister who has translated a German Catholic book about Zen Buddhism" / Karl Meyer / book on peace - censors forbid "Target Equals City" / peace anthology / Phil Berrigan's study of segregation in <u>Catholic Worker</u> |
| | 1962/06/29 | TLS[x] | from Merton | This is a quick one to confirm your arrangements. I will get a note into the guesthouse quick, and | Yes |
| Berrigan to arrive on August 13 and schedule of his proposed talks to novices / talks to novices can be more progressive than talks to the whole Gethsemani community / Merton [ironically] "sending some pro Jesuit propaganda" / books by Fr. Dunne and Fr. Adam Schall / Baptist from Louisville may come to hear Berrigan |
| | 1962/07/20 | HPCS[x] | from Merton | Nearest airport Louisville. From there by bus to New Haven, Ky. From there by taxi. But maybe I | |
| directions to Gethsemani / asks if Berrigan wants to give a talk to the sisters at Loretto |
| | 1962/08/12 | HLS[x] | from Merton | I will be over tomorrow after the High Mass, about 10.15. Could you give a first talk of about 1/2 | |
| speaking schedule for Daniel Berrigan at Gethsemani on August 13 / Tony Walsh from Labre House in Montreal giving a talk |
| | 1962/09/02 | HLS[x] | from Merton | I have your letter and Fr. Gerard showed me the one you sent him. I am writing this from the | Yes |
| Berrigan's comments in favor of "small groups and personal contacts" over large movements with "totalitarian compulsions" - likes small groups like the Little Brothers and Damascus Winzen's monastery / remarks on Fr. Gerard's project / censors object to Merton's "Jesuits in China" / Tony Walsh |
| | 1962/11/12 (#01) | TLS | to Merton | A short one to say hello, and to hope all is well there. Just back last night from N.Y. and a two | |
| workshop with Mother Seton's Sisters of Charity - work with Puerto Ricans and blacks in poorest parishes of New York / John Heidbrink / a layman said that nuns "poor and prayerful and non violent" but priest not ready for leadership / founding Latin American house / asking Merton for introduction to book on liturgy and conscience |
| | 1962/11/12? (#02) | other | to Merton | FUND RAISING DRIVE FOR INTERNATIONAL CENTER [-] 1. Name of organization: | |
| fund raising for William J. Kerby Foundation and the International Student Center |
| | 1962/11/27 (#01) | TLS[x] | from Merton | Just got your blanks from the Goggenbuch Stipend House. I will write you up a litany of praises | Yes |
| Berrigan's recommendation of a grant for the Guggenheim / Vatican Council II - debate on sources of Revelation / Cuba - "just war" question and our own "fabricated illusion" of needing to "press the button" - John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev - blending of American and Soviet materialism / Dorothy Day / Bob Lax |
| | 1962/11/27 (#02) | TAL[c] | from Merton | Just got your blanks from the Goggenbuch Stipend House. I will write you up a litany of praises | Yes |
| [same as TLS[x] from 1962/11/27, but with parts scratched out in pen] |
| | 1963/02/09 | HLS[x] | from Merton | I have not yet thanked you for the clipping from the college paper with your exorbitant statements | Yes |
| Berrigan's description of Merton - a Spanish look - "I look like a Barcelona hotel keeper" / Berrigan going to France / the Guggenheim / Robert Lax / the magazine <u>Ramparts</u> |
| | 1963/06/21? | HLS | to Merton | I am here for a day of retreat to the Maddames [sic] of the S.H. It brings back memories since it | |
| [dated "The Feast of the Sacred Heart" (the feast falling on June 21 in 1963)] writing from Albany, New York, where Phillip and Daniel began abortive freedom ride 3 years before / thinks about packing up everything and going to Birmingham against the wishes of his superiors - civil disobedience and Church disobedience? / Tony Walsh / Charles de Foucault / "Pacem in Terris" / the FOR |
| | 1963/06/25 (#01) | TALS | from Merton | This will come to you as a conscience matter letter, so that I can deal with your question freely. | Yes |
| [draft of TLS[x] from 1963/06/25] |
| | 1963/06/25 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | This will come to you as a conscience matter letter, so that I can deal with your question freely. | Yes |
| going to Birmingham (against superiors) had occurred to Merton, but suggests that it may be counterproductive to Berrigan's mission to lose support and be labeled a renegade / gather other Catholics believing in racial equality and non-violence / "Pacem in Terris", bishops and theologians / monastic role and obedience |
| | 1963/11/09 | TAPCS | to Merton | Hope you havent [sic] given me up for advent or something. After many wanderings and searchings, | |
| [verso: "Kreuzigung Mit Lukas-Symbol" - "Verlag Ars liturgica Maria Laach (Germany)"] chaplain to University students / Goss-Mayrs and John Heidbrink / Tony Walsh |
| | 1963/11/15 (#01) | TAL[c] | from Merton | I am glad to have your letter, card, from Paris. I was not sure where you were going to be and so | Yes |
| tape about Washington / Merton's <u>Ramparts</u> article about race / suggests looking up Camille Drevet in Paris - active in non-violence and friend of Gandhi / Fr. Danielou / Bede Griffiths / José María Gironella / death of Abbot General Gabriel Sortais - thought Merton a "Red" / the Goss-Mayrs / Fr. Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B. |
| | 1963/11/15 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | I am glad to have your letter, card, from Paris. I was not sure where you were going to be and so | Yes |
| tape about Washington / Merton's <u>Ramparts</u> article about race / suggests looking up Camille Drevet in Paris - active in non-violence and friend of Gandhi / Fr. Danielou / Bede Griffiths / José María Gironella / death of Abbot General Gabriel Sortais - thought Merton a "Red" / the Goss-Mayrs / Fr. Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B. |
| | 1963/12/21 | HLS | to Merton | I have to get off a short note to say hello, and to assure you that yr. letter was much appreciated | |
| meetings in Prague and Budapest with Protestants interested in the peace movement / Christian Peace Union's international meeting in Prague / Pope John XXIII and "Pacem in Terris" - surprised both Protestants and Marxists / John Heidbrink / the F.O.R. [Fellowship of Reconciliation] |
| | 1963/12/no? | HPCS | to Merton | Thank you for your kind letter. I will look for the Ramparts and everything else of interest you | |
| President Kennedy's death / the Goss-Mayrs |
| | 1964/02/11 | TALS | to Merton | Seems like an age since I had word of you. I am wonderinf [sic] whether any of the (in)famous tapes | |
| "(in)famous tapes" - Catholicism in Poland under Communism - Fr. Felix McGovern / lacks hope of being sent by the Church as a representative at the Prague peace conference - the good work being done by "a very few Catholics, many more Protestants and Orthodox" - asking Merton to write Pope Paul or Cardinal Bea |
| | 1964/02/23 (#01) | TAL[c] | from Merton | Your letter from Budapest was wonderful. Got to me long after Christmas however and I did not write | Yes |
| response to Berrigan's doubts that the Church would send him as a delegate to Prague peace conference and Merton's struggles with censorship on peace / Hildegard and Jean Goss Mayr / John Heidbrink / conflict in Latin America - Vietnam / <i>Black Revolution</i> and essays on peace / Karl Rahner / Henry Miller in Mexico |
| | 1964/02/23 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | Your letter from Budapest was wonderful. Got to me long after Christmas however and I did not write | Yes |
| response to Berrigan's doubts that the Church would send him as a delegate to Prague peace conference and Merton's struggles with censorship on peace / Hildegard and Jean Goss Mayr / John Heidbrink / conflict in Latin America - Vietnam / <i>Black Revolution</i> and essays on peace / Karl Rahner / Henry Miller in Mexico |
| | 1964/03/05 | TLS | to Merton | I am sending on some junk mail another another [sic] heading. I though[t] it might be of | |
| Latin America - non-violence "too little and too late"? / censorship of his materials / trip to South Africa / [Rolf?] Hochhuth play / Moscow-Prague trip for the summer / Berrigan's piece on Notre Dame / Merton's piece on poets - Henry Miller - "why isn't this guy a Catholic"? / Aleriaand Marocco / John Heidbrink |
| | 1964/03/18 | other | | | |
| [see 1968/05/18 - misdated in published version] |
| | 1964/05/18 (#01) | TAL[c] | from Merton | Whitmonday. Time for abrief [sic] letter, perhaps uninspired. I am worn out (not really) from | Yes |
| book on Gandhi and piece on "Mercy" / Georgetown Strategy Center wants Merton's input but he can't / visit of Hibakusha of Hiroshima bombing / Polish tape arrived but not South African / Jan Milic Lochman from Prague / Ivan Illich inviting Merton to Latin American conference / why Merton can't travel |
| | 1964/05/18 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | Whitmonday. Time for abrief [sic] letter, perhaps uninspired. I am worn out (not really) from | Yes |
| book on Gandhi and piece on "Mercy" / Georgetown Strategy Center wants Merton's input but he can't / visit of Hibakusha of Hiroshima bombing / Polish tape arrived but not South African [Berrigan notes "Confiscated?"] / Jan Milic Lochman from Prague / Ivan Illich inviting Merton to Latin American conference / why Merton can't travel |
| | 1964/06/02 | TALS | to Merton | What a wonderful letter you wrote me, and how deeply I appreciate it… I was desolate to hear that | |
| South African tape likely confiscated in mail out of the country / new assignment in New York City with Jesuit Missions / John Heidbrink - retreats for clergy have expanded to Protestant retreat houses / ideas for new Gethsemani retreat - small and unstructured / Ivan Illich / Claire Booth Luce / Catholics and Marxists |
| | 1964/06/30 | TAL[c] | from Merton | One of the things that you can do for Latin America is get in touch with the poet Pablo Antonio | Yes |
| "Letter to Pablo Antonio Cuadra Concerning Giants" - getting in touch with Cuadra in Nicaragua / Henry Miller - <i>Stand Still Like the Humming Bird</i> / Michael Serafian - <i>The Pilgrim</i> - Cardinal Bea / essay "Black Revolution" in <u>Negro Digest</u> / Pope John XXIII / being outside the Catholic mainstream |
| | 1964/07/no? | HPCS | to Merton | This is a poor excuse for a letter after all the months. But they have been harried ones; I am | |
| [verso: Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo, post card signed from Glasgow, and post marked from Morocco] touring northwest Africa with Fr. Lewis Cox / Barry Goldwater and the race issue / Prague week (conference on peace) - East-West dialogue / Bill Congdon in Rome / Philip Berrigan in Mississippi |
| | 1964/08/04 (#01) | TAL[c] | from Merton | Many thanks for your card from Oslo Morocco. We have played your tapes after much aggiornamento | Yes |
| Jerry Berrigan of Syracuse - sending transcript of the African tape / reforming religious life - proposes talk at Loretto / proposed meeting with Berrigan and John Heidbrink in October / frustrated attempts to write on important matters - leaving cycle of "burn out" / Merton's physical resemblance to Henry Miller, Picasso or "ex con" |
| | 1964/08/04 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | Many thanks for your card from Oslo Morocco. We have played your tapes after much aggiornamento | Yes |
| Jerry Berrigan of Syracuse - sending transcript of the African tape / reforming religious life - proposes talk at Loretto / proposed meeting with Berrigan and John Heidbrink in October / frustrated attempts to write on important matters - leaving cycle of "burn out" / Merton's physical resemblance to Henry Miller, Picasso or "ex con" |
| | 1964/09/19 (#01) | TAL[c] | from Merton | Got a good letter from John Heidbrink today and he said you were bac[k] also told me where to find | Yes |
| arranged talk with Loretto community / Merton's showing of abstract drawings in Louisville / aggiornamento of Trappist life and monastic formation - vocation problem / article on Flannery O'Connor / more of Merton's writing on peace getting through censors, though nothing "technical about the morality of the bomb" |
| | 1964/09/19 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | Got a good letter from John Heidbrink today and he said you were bac[k] also told me where to find | Yes |
| arranged talk with Loretto community / Merton's showing of abstract drawings in Louisville / aggiornamento of Trappist life and monastic formation - vocation problem / article on Flannery O'Connor / more of Merton's writing on peace getting through censors, though nothing "technical about the morality of the bomb" |
| | 1964/10/22 | TALS[x] | from Merton | Thanks for your note of yesterday. I sent the CW Letters and some other things, but have no more | |
| no more copies of <i>Peace in the Post-Christian Era</i> to reproduce / talk on Loretto for the afternoon / will try to come up with an article for <u>Jesuit Missions</u> after finishing overdue article for <u>Holiday</u> |
| | 1964/11/09 | TLS[x] | from Merton | Last minute check on arrangements for getting the people here. John H. arranged for me to have only | Yes |
| arrangements for meeting at Gethsemani / John Heidbrink and John O. Nelson from Yale / Berrigan to work on getting Paul Peachey there |
| | 1964/11/11 | TLS[x] | from Merton | We can send one car and will send same to Albert Pick Motel nine am Wednesday 18th. Good idea for | Yes |
| arranging talk on Loretto / Berrigan to lead discussion on "spiritual roots of protest" and Merton to give talk on "monastic desert viewpoint" |
| | 1965/02/26 | TALS[x] | from Merton | AID newsletter came in this morning all full of good pictures of you, and reminded me I owe you a | Yes |
| after finishing as Novice Master, Merton to live full hermit life / life in solitude doesn't cause misanthropy, but an appreciation of humanity / Merton now on same electric grid as Rural Electric Cooperative and the poor farmers - wants to move farther out / Vietnam "sickening" |
| | 1965/05/19 | TALS[x] | from Merton | Glad to get your note. I would be delighted to see you and Jim ifyou [sic] can get out on the 29th, | Yes |
| Philip Berrigan / the [U.S.] "administration is just plain nuts" and "doing more to strengthen communism in Asia and Latin America than anyone else on earth" |
| | 1965/06/01 | HLS | to Merton | How grateful Tom for your marvelous welcome. Your wisdom, yourself! We went away as though after | |
| thanks for Gethsemani get together and Merton's drawings / Berrigan sends a leaflet with "3 poems to fit our times [-] 1965 [-] Mary's Day [-] Immaculate Heart College" - poems by Dan Berrigan ("To the Woman of Immaculate Heart, a Poem and No Persuasion"), Gerald Huckaby, and Pat Amato |
| | 1965/07/18 | TLS[x] | from Merton | Many thanks for the letter and the fine poem. I am sorry Fr McGowan couldn't get out here. But | Yes |
| [1965/05/18 date in published letters a misprint] no more visits to Merton at hermitage, except one commitment to Hildegard Goss Mayr / Schema for the <u>Commonweal</u> - hermitage / Jim Douglass / Merton's new "novitiate" of life in the hermitage |
| | 1965/11/19 (#01) | TAL[c] | from Merton | Today your letter came, with one from Jim also one from Dorothy Day. It was a great relief to hear | Yes |
| [handwritten in pencil - "This was with Catholic Peace Fellowship materials"] regret over hasty reaction to the suicide of Roger LaPorte by quitting the Catholic Peace Fellowship (CPF) - (see telegram in "Forest, James" file) / Berrigan's exile to South America |
| | 1965/11/19 (#02) | TL[c] | from Merton | Today your letter came, with one from Jim also one from Dorothy Day. It was a great relief to hear | Yes |
| regret over hasty reaction to the suicide of Roger LaPorte by quitting the Catholic Peace Fellowship (CPF) - (see telegram in "Forest, James" file) / Berrigan's exile to South America |
| | 1966/02/06 | HLS | to Merton | I feel very neglectful, especially after the bum steer I gave you in an address from N.Orleans when | |
| [writing from exile in Argentina] travel to South America via Cuernavaca, Mexico / death of Roger LaPorte "in light of the 'great consensus'" / Latin America a "real laboratory of change" for the future in the U.S. / good exchanges with Ivan Illich in Cuernavaca and Archbishop Helder Camara in Brazil |
| | 1966/02/14 (#01) | TALS[x] | from Merton | Some event, hearing from you. Letter came today, dated Feb 6th in Argentina, and I don't know how | Yes |
| Ernesto Cardenal in Nicaragua and his brother in Ecuador / doesn't feel sorry for Berrigan going to Latin America - would like to go there himself / Berrigan's current popularity in print, success of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, partnership with Sr. Corita / peace protests / conflicts with authority and obedience / Bill DuBay |
| | 1966/02/14 (#02) | TAL[c] | from Merton | Some event, hearing from you. Letter came today, dated Feb 6th in Argentina, and I don't know how | Yes |
| Ernesto Cardenal in Nicaragua and his brother in Ecuador / doesn't feel sorry for Berrigan going to Latin America - would like to go there himself / Berrigan's current popularity in print, success of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, and partnership with Sr. Corita / peace protests / conflicts with authority and obedience |
| | 1966/03/18 | TLS | from Merton | A short note to assure you that I am safely back in the arms of Jesuit Missions, deeply grateful for | |
| "no prospect of an early let-up in the war frenzy" - need for change but agreement with Merton that extremism could undermine good effects / not convinced of Bill DuBay's solution |
| | 1966/03/23 | HLS | from Merton | Very happy to hear your back! Glad things have cleared. I thought they might. Go to it, man! | Yes |
| "Maybe with this dirty war the nation will learn a few things about itself and grow up." |
| | 1966/04/09 | HLS | from Merton | It was good to get your letter. The operation worked out fine but it was a little rough for a week. | Yes |
| think Dom James is using hermitage to impose a total silence on him / fears Vietnam may lead to a much larger war |
| | 1966/05/30 | HPCS[x] | from Merton | Greetings and reminder you have been with us. John [-] Our warmest thoughts with you. Thich Nhat | Yes |
| [verso: "Interior, Lincoln's Boyhood Home 1811-1816, Knob Creek… KY" / post card from John Heidbrink, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Merton / photocopy of the letter side only] Merton writes "We are at Lincoln's place. Lovely sunny day. Kids all around." |
| | 1966/09/18 | TLS | from Merton | Thanks for great bare arsed letter and sign of the times from Jesuit Missions. Congratulations | Yes |
| peace prize from Catholic organization given to Berrigan / trying to set up another get together / Merton reminiscence on secret trip back to New York - how he loved it, but how he wouldn't survive long - even Louisville too much excitement to handle / peace movement / writings on Camus / relationship with "M." |
| | 1966/10/27 | TALS | from Merton | Here is the preface to Nhat Hanh. I would like it mimeographed, please. As soon as copies are | |
| sending works in need of mimeographing |
| | 1966/11/26 | TLS[x] | from Merton | Many thanks for your splendid letter from Europe. I got a good idea of the trip-- and the seminary. | Yes |
| European seminarians - desire to change but do not know how / Lanza del Vasto / sending works in need of typing |
| | 1967/02/22 | TLS[x] | from Merton | Thanks for the laurel note and the clipping on AJ. He certainly was one of the notable people, | Yes |
| Jim Holloway visited with Will Campbell / Vietnam / working on articles about Albert Camus and William Faulkner |
| | 1967/03/07 | HLS[x] | from Merton | Just got your new book yesterday. It looks great. Will report soon as I can type again. I just | Yes |
| dialogue between "extreme people" about the future relevance of monasticism - against monasticism as a "tolerable Christian concept" - Rosemary Ruether and Vahanian; for quasi-monastic, middle ground - Dorothy Day and Dave Kirk; traditional monasticism - Dom Jean Leclercq and Merton / Jim Forest / Joan Baez |
| | 1967/03/19 | HLS | to Merton | Here I am by the ocean at Santa Barbara, stuck without writing papers but determined to get a line | |
| Ping Ferry / loneliness and love - Merton and "M." / "free church" worship / "free wheeling" Jesuits from L.A. - drinking bourbon and discussing "freedom, love, change, hope, you, us, them, all of it" / Joan Baez |
| | 1967/04/02 | HLS[x] | from Merton | Many thanks for Palm Sunday epistle. Here it is Low Sunday already. Why not drive over with Jim | |
| arranging another get together |
| | 1967/04/15 (#01) | TALS[x] | from Merton | Sounds as though this is it, doesn't it? I find it hard to organize clear thoughts but you will | Yes |
| Berrigan's conflicts with the Jesuits over permission to go with Fellowship of Reconciliation to Hanoi to bring medical supplies / institutional Church - obeying God vs. man / Fr. Perrin's departure from Jesuits / advises Berrigan to follow his conscience and not worry about the consequences if he truly believes in this |
| | 1967/04/15 (#02) | TL[c] | from Merton | Sounds as though this is it, doesn't it? I find it hard to organize clear thoughts but you will | Yes |
| Berrigan's conflicts with the Jesuits over permission to go with Fellowship of Reconciliation to Hanoi to bring medical supplies / institutional Church - obeying God vs. man / Fr. Perrin's departure from Jesuits / advises Berrigan to follow his conscience and not worry about the consequences if he truly believes in this |
| | 1967/04/no? | TALS | to Merton | Things have been happening quite fast here; they sentenced David Miller to 2 and 1 half years last | |
| sentencing of David Miller [for burning draft card] / using every legal means to protest war / proposal to send Berrigan to North Vietnam to bring medical supplies - conflict with Jesuit religious superiors / asks Merton if he should disobey at the risk of Jesuits expelling him |
| | 1967/07/13 (#01) | TL[c] | from Merton | You will probably hear of this through the FOR but since people in France have been writing to me | Yes |
| international, ecumenical seven day fast - Protestant and Catholic clergy and Lanza del Vasto's group / asking Berrigan if he is interested though Merton cannot go / Merton may fast privately at hermitage / Pasteur Jean Lasserre / pamphlet on Camus' <i>Plague</i> dedicated to Berrigan / Teilhard de Chardin |
| | 1967/07/13 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | You will probably hear of this through the FOR but since people in France have been writing to me | Yes |
| international, ecumenical seven day fast - Protestant and Catholic clergy and Lanza del Vasto's group / asking Berrigan if he is interested though Merton cannot go / Merton may fast privately at hermitage / Pasteur Jean Lasserre / pamphlet on Camus' <i>Plague</i> dedicated to Berrigan / Teilhard de Chardin |
| | 1967/07/15 | TALS | to Merton | It seems like ages, know I've been remiss. Jim Forest sent on one of yrs. to him and got me to get | |
| [writing from Pueblo, Colorado] work with Mexican-American youth with Upward Bound program / Loretto sisters who knew Merton from Kentucky / "open parish setup" like Oklahoma City project - problem that most are upper-middle class and do not want to mix with poor / Cornell University offer / description of Pueblo area |
| | 1967/09/16 (#01) | TL[c] | from Merton | Here is some stuff I dug out of the pile. Not much, if any, about nonviolence but some on Zen and | Yes |
| background on Zen for Berrigan's seminar on non-violent and violent religious traditions - Zen and Samurai fighting - swordsmanship without violence - non-aggressive posture - "Turning violence back on itself" - D. T. Suzuki / death of Ad Reinhardt - first of "immediate gang" to go - "I guess my whole bunch won't outlast sixty." |
| | 1967/09/16 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | Here is some stuff I dug out of the pile. Not much, if any, about nonviolence but some on Zen and | Yes |
| background on Zen for Berrigan's seminar on non-violent and violent religious traditions - Zen and Samurai fighting - swordsmanship without violence - non-aggressive posture - "Turning violence back on itself" - D. T. Suzuki / death of Ad Reinhardt - first of "immediate gang" to go - "I guess my whole bunch won't outlast sixty." |
| | 1967/09/no? | HLS | to Merton | A short note and a loud cry like the Beatles, HELP. My books such as they are still unpacked | |
| seminar on violence, non-violence, and religious traditions - asking Merton's input on Hindu and Zen ideals / little hope for Hanoi trip / [writing from Cornell University] "Extraordinary student ferment here, practically all leadership Jewish. The Catholics are year round hibernaters [sic] in fraternity woodwork" |
| | 1967/10/06 | TAL | to Merton | Thanks for all the good material. I had a few of these made up for the brethren when I was saying | |
| [stationary says: "US Forest Service… Leave a Clean Camp and a Dead Fire"] Peace movement is turning more violent - ideas of Martin Luther King, Jr. out of fashion / Philip Berrigan and others involved in civil disobedience in Baltimore planning violence against military property / youth influenced by "Che" Guevara |
| | 1967/10/10 (#01) | TL[c] | from Merton | Reaction to the airmail special about Phil and the group that wants to get violent. This will help | Yes |
| reaction to Philip Berrigan's proposal to use violent means - Che Guevara, Regis Debray - violence against people is definitely off-limits - violence against property gets away from Gandhi's ideals, starts to get fuzzy morally, but Merton does not rule it out; however, will it undermine the real message behind peace movement |
| | 1967/10/10 (#02) | TALS[x] | from Merton | Reaction to your airmail special about Phil and the group that wants to get violent. This will help | Yes |
| [same as TL[c] from 1967/10/10, except Archivist's note from Cornell states that certain words (containing Philip Berrigan's name) have been covered up and signature masked (Merton's name still listed), presumably for mimeographing and distribution to others, while protecting Merton and Philip Berrigan] |
| | 1967/11/27 (#01) | TL[c] | from Merton | Jim Holloway sent me a clipping about Phil: that and his piece in CW about prison (which was v. | |
| question of whether signing on to petition being given to the Pope should get mixed up in state policy (Church-state separation) but agrees with cause / does not want to be too controversial by accepting draft cards now with the new Abbatial election / contemplatives forming lay communities / Dom James as hermit |
| | 1967/11/27 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | Jim Holloway sent me a clipping about Phil: that and his piece in CW about prison (which was v. | Yes |
| question of whether signing on to petition being given to the Pope should get mixed up in state policy (Church-state separation) but agrees with cause / does not want to be too controversial by accepting draft cards now with the new Abbatial election / contemplatives forming lay communities / Dom James as hermit |
| | 1967/11/no? | TALS | to Merton | I don't know even if I had the gumption to write a think [sic] you to you for the marvelous letter | |
| recounts events surrounding Philip Berrigan's decision, with 3 others, to pour blood on draft records / Phil looking forward to jail / demonstrations in Washington, D.C. / cable to the Pope distributed to clergy / clergy appeal to turn in draft cards as a "paraliturg[ical]" offering / CPF - protest against Catholic Relief Services |
| | 1968/01/29 | TLS | to Merton | A short hectic one as usual; Just in from Chi toward dawn; we had several good things there | |
| draft card turn-in by seminarians in Chicago / apathy by Jesuit theologians in Aurora, Illinois / cursing lawyers in Philip Berrigan case / possibility of Merton's rules loosening regarding travel with a new abbot / seminar on Zen prayer / Ivan Illich conference on Che Guevara / Marxist students and "black power kids" |
| | 1968/02/08 (#01) | TL[c] | from Merton | Seems I get less and less time to answer letters. Or anyway, whatever the reason, I just don't get | Yes |
| thoughts on new abbot [Dom Flavian Burns] - will allow Merton to travel as much as other Trappist can - Trappists generally against public conferences and Merton doesn't want big public appearances - feels role is in staying out of the fray but writing and advising those in active involvement in the peace movement |
| | 1968/02/08 (#02) | TLS[x] | from Merton | Seems I get less and less time to answer letters. Or anyway, whatever the reason, I just don't get | Yes |
| thoughts on new abbot [Dom Flavian Burns] - will allow Merton to travel as much as other Trappist can - Trappists generally against public conferences and Merton doesn't want big public appearances - feels role is in staying out of the fray but writing and advising those in active involvement in the peace movement |
| | 1968/03/18 | TLS | from Merton | Here's the little booklet on The Plague I told you about. No one deserves the dedication better | Yes |
| hoping Berrigan will send Merton poems or fables for <u>Monks Pond</u> / trouble with "John Birch element" at Gethsemani, including ex-Jesuit Fr. Raymond "who is threatening to have me burned" / conference for nuns |
| | 1968/11/27 | TLS | to Merton | This is a very brief note to say hello. You will by now have heard of the trial and our sentencing. | |
| trial and sentencing of Daniel and Philip Berrigan for "Catonsville Nine" incident of breaking into draft office and burning draft cards with home-made napalm in Catonsville, Maryland / asking if Merton would be interviewed by Francine Grey of the <u>New Yorker</u> about peace movement [Merton (in Asia) later declines] |
| | 1979/09/17 | other[x] | by Berrigan, Daniel | I would like to reflect with you rather than talk to you about this extraordinary spirit, Thomas | |
| ["Typescript made from tape of a talk on Thomas Merton given by Daniel Berrigan for the formal opening of the Thomas Merton Center for Creative Exchange, September 17, 1979, in Denver, Colorado" - copied from the Nancy Wilson Ross Paper at the Ransom Center] |
| | 1980/no/no? | HLS[x] | to Center from Berrigan, Daniel | Rejoice with us! On September 8, eight of us entered a General Electric Nuclear Weapons factory in | |
| circular letter sent to friends of Daniel and Philip Berrigan (and six others) announcing their act of disobedience in breaking into the General Electric plant and ruining 3 nuclear re-entry cones with household hammers / including a personal message sent to Pat [?] / permission to use Merton correspondence |
| | 1982/07/11 (#01) | other | from Shannon, William | Note on the letters of Daniel Berrigan: When I put this correspondence together, I did not have | |
| [transcript of Merton-Berrigan correspondence, with full letters from Merton and excerpts of Berrigan's letters, prepared for the published letters by their editor, William H. Shannon, and sent to Robert Giroux of Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishers - 39 pages (transcripts only, no photocopies)] |
| | 1982/07/11 (#02) | other | | The Merton-Berrigan Letters | |
| [copies of Merton/Berrigan correspondence compiled by William Shannon for publication purposes - photocopies of letters included] |
| | 1982/08/01 | TL[c] | from Shannon, William / to James Tyler | I am sorry I am so late in getting back to you to thank you for your kindness to me in helping | |
| from William Shannon editor of the published letters to James Tyler Rare Books Assistant at Olin Library, Cornell |
| | 1982/08/05 | TLS | from Tyler, James / to William Shannon | The news that your publishing project has been accepted by the Merton Trust is wonderful! | |
| |
| | 1982/09/28 | TL[c] | from Shannon, William | I am not sure you will remember me, I have been teaching at Nazareth College-for centuries it seems | |
| writing for permission to publish Berrigan's correspondence with Merton |
| | undated/no/no (#01) | other | | Letters by Thomas Merton to Daniel and Philip Berrigan in the Department of Rare Books, Cornell | |
| list of Merton's letters to Daniel Berrigan in Cornell Library's Rare Books Department |
| | undated/no/no (#02) | other | | Contemporary Literary Criticism - subject Daniel Berrigan | |
| biographical information collected by William Shannon |
| | undated/no/no (#03) | other | | Contemporary Authors, Volumes 33-36, First Revision | |
| biographical information collected by William Shannon |
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