The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University



Advanced Search 


Merton's Correspondence with:

Bob Lax; Robert Lax; Robert James Lax; Lax, Bob; Lax, Robert James; Robert J. Lax

Lax, Robert, 1915-2000  printer

Bob Lax with the a woman and girl of the Cristiani family circus in western Canada, circa 1949 (see 1961/09/00?[1] below.  Copyright Thomas Merton Legacy Trust.)  
Bob Lax with the a woman and girl of the Cristiani family circus in western Canada, circa 1949 (see 1961/09/00?[1] below. Copyright Thomas Merton Legacy Trust.) 

Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence
Dates of materials: 1938-1991
Volume: 264 item(s); 460 pg(s)

Scope and Content

The correspondence of Merton and Robert Lax during the late thirties and early forties details Merton's conflicts in deciding whether to be a writer, to be a social worker in Harlem, thoughts about the Franciscans and the priesthood, anxiety over the draft for World War II, and his eventual decision to join the Trappists at Gethsemani Abbey. Though their correspondence takes a more formal and serious note and becomes temporarily infrequent shortly after Merton enters the Trappists, their dialog resumes a witty playfulness which reaches a crescendo in the 1960's. The letters play with language and can even be called "anti-letters" in the anti-poetic style of Chilean poet Nicanor Parra. The letters include light-hearted banter between friends, but the humorous style has an undertone of wry wit and wisdom about politics, ranging from the civil rights struggle to the Israeli Six-Day War of 1967. Included in the letters are poems written by Merton and Lax.

Please note that original letters of Lax and carbon copies of Merton's letters were bound into the manuscript for A Catch of Anti-letters (edited by Merton before his accidental death but not published until 1978). Photocopies of the bound set of letters from the manuscript are interfiled with the other letters for convenience. Each letter is referenced by it's number in the published letters by Arthur Biddle. For example, "Biddle 68.16" references the 16th letter published by Biddle from 1968 (generally the 16th letter of that year chronologically). Following the Biddle notation, the letters from 1962-1967 that were include in A Catch of Anti-letters are labeled as follows: "CAL Pt. II-XXXI", i.e., A Catch of Anti-Letters, part two, number 31. The usual column for published letters only references those letters of Merton's published in The Road to Joy.

Biography

Robert Lax was a minimalist poet and Merton's closest friend from his Columbia University days. Bob Lax was born in Olean, New York, into a Jewish family. His family later moved to New York. At Columbia, he met Merton through mutual involvement in the university's humorous magazine, The Columbia Jester. Lax's spirituality influenced Merton's acceptance of religion and conversion to Catholicism in 1938, Lax having later been influenced by Merton and converting to Catholicism in 1943. The two friends stayed in contact after graduating from Columbia and spent time together with Ed Rice at a cottage in Olean after Merton finished his Masters degree in 1939. Lax attended Merton's ordination to the priesthood in 1949. Lax wrote for and edited such magazines as Pax and Jubilee and was on staff at The New Yorker. In 1962, he went into self-imposed exile from the United States and lived much of his life until his later years on the Greek islands of Patmos, Lesvos and Kalymnos. He returned to Olean, New York, in the summer of 2000, where he died in his sleep on September 26. (Sources: The Road to Joy, p. 142; and The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, p. 249.)

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

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

Related Information and Links

All letters, except a very few as noted, appear in a book edited by Arthur W. Biddle, When Prophecy Still Had a Voice. See also Cold War Letters #16, #40, and #78, and other letters from Merton, published in The Road to Joy, pp. 142-187; see also A Catch of Anti-Letters; and see also "Reinhardt, Adolph" for three post cards sent to Lax.

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. 1938/06/17 TLS[x] from Merton I got here very hot very tired. Every time the Erie Railroad got parallel to a highway the cars all [Biddle 38.1] «detailed view»
2. 1938/06/29 TLS[x] from Merton Tomorrow I move out of here to go to the place on 114th st. which is 548a, where they have [Biddle 38.3] «detailed view»
3. 1938/07/29 TLS[x] from Merton Lax, you don't write. Sir, are you bogged up in your cabin? Are you walled in, is there no mail [Biddle 38.5] «detailed view»
4. 1938/08/11 TLS[x] from Merton Tomorrow summer session draws to a close and all the happy people go away, some creeping, [Biddle 38.7] «detailed view»
5. 1938/08/no? TLS[x] from Merton Lissen forchrissake why dont [sic] you go to Boston to N.Flagg, and maybe I'd go up to Boston [Biddle 38.8] «detailed view»
6. 1938/10/no? TALS[x] from Merton I had to do some fast thinking today. I walked out of the Library and my mind shouted: "Ow, Globes, [Biddle 38.9] «detailed view»
7. 1939/04/25? HLS[x] from Merton There is on board one Ida Lichfield of Boston Mass. I say to her ok you are of Boston so you know [Biddle 39.2] «detailed view»
8. 1939/04/30? HPCS[x] from Merton Listen: Bermuda is the place in the world most like the South of France. It is, hear me, splendid! [Biddle 39.3] «detailed view»
9. 1939/07/14 TALS[x] from Merton I got back here it is hot, but it aint so much the heat as the wet which is grieving. I seen Gibney [Biddle 39.4] «detailed view»
10. 1939/07/30? HLS[x] from Merton I never heard no beard so highly praised except by barbers. I find it is not dames who dislike [Biddle 39.5] «detailed view»
11. 1939/08/21 TLS[x] from Merton Its [sic] hot. It is so hot all the fellows as far as I know have sat down. Slate, I talked to on [Biddle 39.6] «detailed view»
12. 1939/09/no? TLS[x] from Merton Gibney just now over the phone nearly knocked me unconscious with the quotation about the children [Biddle 39.8] «detailed view»
13. 1939/10/17 TLS[x] from Merton Gibney made a sharp guess you and seymour had flew the coop. Some coop. Then I called up [Biddle 39.10] «detailed view»
14. 1939/10/30? TLS[x] from Merton It come to me today to go to the Fair again although it is nearly locked up or rather because it is. [Biddle 39.12] «detailed view»
15. 1939/12/10 (#01) HPCS[x] from Merton I'm satisfied comfy and quite content [-] I'm stopping here my money's well spent. x29 [-] 12xG:24ΠR [Biddle 39.16] «detailed view»
16. 1939/12/10 (#02) HPCS[x] from Merton Here we are for the art for the culture for the beauty for the sloth for the expense for the humdrum [Biddle 39.17] «detailed view»
17. 1940/01/09 TLS[x] from Merton Yes it was nice at Olean and I'm sorry I had to go so fast. But I did save money on the train [Biddle 40.2] «detailed view»
18. 1940/02/04 TLS[x] from Merton Thanks for the letter, the play. Some play, very fine very funny but I only read it between [Biddle 40.3] «detailed view»
19. 1940/02/16 TLS[x] from Merton Thanks nice letter, Lax. The handwriting is neater but still runs in wavy sloping lines now up [Biddle 40.5] «detailed view»
20. 1940/03/no HLS[x] from Merton I had a ghastly experience with some doctors. (1) The Doctors rushed at me in a group and plucked [Biddle 40.7] «detailed view»
21. 1940/04/08 HPCS[x] from Merton This picture shows how Florida enchant the eye. Another pic. I send to Slate show how horse is king [Biddle 40.8] «detailed view»
22. 1940/04/10? TLS[x] from Merton what i say about cuba is true it takes about thirty bucks to get to Havana from new york by train [Biddle 40.9] «detailed view»
23. 1940/07/24 HNS[x] from Merton No monastery. Maybe look for a job. I don't think Jinny & Lilly come up to Olean. Here it is [Biddle 40.12] «detailed view»
24. 1940/08/07 HPCS[x] from Merton Me come Friday night. Right now not in Worlds Fair [-] Busy in the movies. Love Merto [Biddle 40.13] «detailed view»
25. 1940/08/no? TLS[x] from Merton Some complicated misery leaving Virginia Burtons mansion in the state of the same name, for it was [Biddle 40.14] «detailed view»
26. 1941/02/20 TLS[x] from Merton sidney Pratt cant fool me, I know "writer conscious" isn't nothing to go bang bang on my head [Biddle 41.4] «detailed view»
27. 1941/03/13 TLS[x] from Merton How youse. Me not so good, what with the draft. Last week I got the questionnaire, this week, [Biddle 41.6] «detailed view»
28. 1941/03/21? TLS[x] from Merton Some printemps. Outside my fusty room it laughs a great drunk tree as if in the heats of middlemost [Biddle 41.8] «detailed view»
29. 1941/03/30? TLS[x] from Merton the chaff board hath spoke. I got me drop number: 4e. i will not appeal. there is only one more [Biddle 41.9] «detailed view»
30. 1941/04/05 HNS[x] from Merton However many "n's" there may be in Cincinnati it is sure a nice city, clean, serious, happy, [Biddle 41.10] «detailed view»
31. 1941/06/18? HPCS[x] from Merton This is a penny view of Spencer's Beauty in Cornbox, N.Y. Holloy. Not stopping at the Hotel [Biddle 41.12] «detailed view»
32. 1941/06/30 TLS[x] from Merton I have just rushed incontinent to my maquina scribi and penned with the artful mechanical fingers [Biddle 41.14] «detailed view»
33. 1941/12/06 TLS[x] from Merton Finally has come the time to go to the Trappists and try to get in. I cannot explain this except [Biddle 41.19] «detailed view»
34. 1942/11/21 HLS[x] from Merton I was happy and surprised that the New Yorker took the Carol, all full of direct references to God, [Biddle 42.1] «detailed view»
35. 1942/no/no? HLS[x] to Merton Yr letter I showed to Gibney, Gil, Roger, Leila Lennie - this week to Rice Gladio, Mark Van Doren. [Biddle 42.2] «detailed view»
36. 1943/11/23 HLS[x] from Merton Thanks for the letters. I liked the poem about the "universe is mostly dark" in connection with [Biddle 43.1] «detailed view»
37. 1945/04/01 HLS[x] from Merton After my confessor had said no poems, then I was talking to Fr. Abbot about something completely [Biddle 45.1] «detailed view»
38. 1945/04/02 HLS[x] from Merton P.S. Today I opened a letter from someone called Raymond E. F. Larson who sent me a good poem [Biddle 45.1 (continued)] «detailed view»
39. 1947/04/07 HLS[x] to Merton I've been thinking about you a lot through Lent at Easter. I haven't heard from you even indirectly [Biddle 47.1] «detailed view»
40. 1947/04/13 HLS[x] from Merton Thanks for your letter. I am fine. In fact March 19th I made my solemn vows & so everything [Biddle 47.2 / dated "Low Sunday", which should be April 13th that year, but dated "May 1947" in The Road to Joy] «detailed view»
41. 1947/11/29 TLS to Merton This girl Mary Averett Seelye is 7 ft tall and an ex-instructor at Sarah Lawrence. She dances [Biddle 47.3] «detailed view»
42. 1948/04/01 HLS[x] from Merton You see it's still Gethsemani, not Utah, though the Utah foundation sounds fine. [Biddle 48.1] «detailed view»
43. 1948/11/24 TLS[x] from Merton Thanks for your beautiful letter. One of the best things I liked about the 7 storey mtn was [Biddle 48.2 - dated "Feast of St. John of the X" (John of the Cross) / photocopy is missing a line - missing line appears in Biddle's published letters] «detailed view»
44. 1949/05/27 HNS to Merton +PAX [-] Happy Ordination Day. It is good here, all snow. Here are markers for your friends. [Biddle 49.1] «detailed view»
45. 1949/10/no? TALS[x] to Merton I'm home again in the attic; stayed at the island till October 15. it is a fine island, but house [Biddle 49.2] «detailed view»
46. 1949/11/27 TLS[x] from Merton Thanks for the letter and the list of poems and the news of Gib and Nancy. Is Virgin Islands any [Biddle 49.3] «detailed view»
47. 1949/11/30? TALS[x] to Merton You do fine: always letters on my birthday. This one very good, very funny. Here is the beginning [Biddle 49.4] «detailed view»
48. 1950/04/23? HPCS[x] to Merton POWER WISDOM LOVE AT PLAY IN EVERY ACT OF EVERY BEING POWER WISDOM LOVE [Biddle 50.1 - postmarked April 23, 1950 - words arranged in a circle] «detailed view»
49. 1950/09/23 TLS to Merton Sister Tiroux is from nazis gesprungen; i on the other hand am chez the baroness von hueck [Biddle 50.3] «detailed view»
50. 1950/11/04 HPCS to Merton If I ever heard of La Sainte Chapelle I didn't pay much attention but it sure is pretty - the angel [Biddle 50.4 - verso: black and white photograph of a statue on La Sainte Chapelle du Palais in Lourdes, France] «detailed view»
51. 1950/no/no? HLS[x] from Merton Swell poem. About these autographs- No. Not unless they can get to some close friend [not published in Biddle's book] «detailed view»
52. 1951/04/07? TLS[x] to Merton Everywhere I look today it says Louis: trucks go by say Louis, hotel St Louis, but Sain Louis; [Biddle 51.1 - no date / marked in pencil "1952?" but Biddle estimates the date as 1951] «detailed view»
53. 1956/12/25 TLS to Merton from the middle of the storm i salute you. dying, we praise thee. from under the rocks we garble [Biddle 56.6 - dated "Noel 56"] «detailed view»
54. 1957/08/12 TL to Merton one sits here in the apartment of dave budd, abstract expressionist painter, husband of corky [Biddle 57.4 - continued on letter from 1957/08/13] «detailed view»
55. 1957/08/13 TLS to Merton here it is the next morning in the same place. there is a tree outside the window. the world as [Biddle 57.4 - continued from previous letter] «detailed view»
56. 1957/11/08 HPCS from Reinhardt, Adolph [see "Reinhardt, Adolph" file / series of symbols / appearing to be a coded language of some sort with no intelligible words written to Robert Lax in Buffalo General Hospital (Buffalo, New York)] «detailed view»
57. 1957/11/22 HPCS from Reinhardt, Adolph LAXPAXPALAXPAXLAX, MEX. YUREM SANKS YRREM SAMX MEANS ITS ALL THE SAME (TO YOU) SAMKS [see "Reinhardt, Adolph" file] appears to be stylized letters (similar to symbolic writing in prior post cards) of "Merry Xmas" «detailed view»
58. 1957/11/28 HLS to Merton I had to larf when I seen you was at the Flageolet's Memorial Hospital. It certainly is the year [Biddle 57.7 - dated "Thanksgiving Day"] «detailed view»
59. 1957/11/30? HLS to Merton I've been working on a memorable saying of the following characters: L. Bloy: the only sorrow [Biddle 57.8] «detailed view»
60. 1957/12/13? TLS to Merton This is Cotton Mather's day. Cotton Mather invented the gin-mill. This was called the unlustrious [Biddle 57.9] «detailed view»
61. 1960/06/09 TALS[c] from Merton Did come Paxo proof from Mem day jive, I have, I have admired, jog-goggled, imagined on crusty [Biddle 60.8] «detailed view»
62. 1961/06/21 HLS to Merton Print it all together with a whoop - this is my idea - fill it up with peace dragons, pretty beezils [Biddle 61.9] «detailed view»
63. 1961/06/25? HLS to Merton perhaps there is some Ferlinghetti mixup - but maybe not. He writes you tell him he can have atom [Biddle 61.10] «detailed view»
64. 1961/07/11? HLS to Merton This latest version of the bomb is by far the most magnificent, I am ravished anew. I will do all [Biddle 61.13 - verso: handwritten notes by Merton] «detailed view»
65. 1961/07/14 HLS to Merton That is a good poem, the poem about poor old Ernest. (His brother, Lester Hemingway, is he still [Biddle 61.14] «detailed view»
66. 1961/08/17? HLS to Merton L. F writes he not use Child Bomb till after Pax if at all- So [Biddle 61.16] «detailed view»
67. 1961/08/25? HLS to Merton I am reading the crazy mad argument (for P. A. Cuadra) with great pleasure & many a bombed-out [Biddle 61.20] «detailed view»
68. 1961/08/no? HLS to Merton Ed Rice say could we have an excerpt (2000 words you, 2000 words Suzuki) from Wisdom in [not published in Biddle's book] «detailed view»
69. 1961/09/no? (#01) other   here is Lax saving world for Polynesian girls. (Cristiani) [black and white photograph of a woman and a girl from the Cristiani family with annotation in pencil by Lax - Lax spent the summer of 1949 following the Cristiani family circus in western Canada - stamp on the back of the photograph seems to indicate this print was made in September of 1961] «detailed view»
70. 1961/09/no? (#02) other   here is same one lushing up with Mama Cristiani [black and white photograph of Lax and Mama Cristiani with annotation in pencil by Lax - Lax spent the summer of 1949 following the Cristiani family circus in western Canada - stamp on the back of the photograph seems to indicate this print was made in September of 1961] «detailed view»
71. 1961/09/no? (#03) other   here is Emil Antonucci [black and white photograph of Emil Antonucci, who designed and published many of Lax's books and designed a special edition book of Merton's "Original Child Bomb"] «detailed view»
72. 1961/11/12? HLS to Merton I am overwhelm with presents [-] Thurber poem [-] Clamx of Alexandriums [-] Red & Dead jokes - [Biddle 61.24] «detailed view»
73. 1961/11/15 HLS to Merton I am just read Clemish Alexandrius - All splendid. All most magnificent. For Pax I would like [Biddle 61.25] «detailed view»
74. 1961/11/18? HLS to Merton hoy [-] yes [-] Pax want Clement of Alexandria [-] hoy, [-] yes, [-] Pax want collected works [Biddle 61.26] «detailed view»
75. 1961/11/22? HLS to Merton yes - Clammish - short introduction [-] funny sayings, [-] plenty [-] Poppa Zavatta [Biddle 61.27] «detailed view»
76. 1961/11/29? HLS to Merton Yes, Ernesto Cardenal poems [-] yes - Jubilee, ok [-] Jubilee [-] plenty beat [-] translations, [Biddle 61.29] «detailed view»
77. 1961/12/no? transcript from Merton Here is at my side your exceedingly ribald Christmas card in many foreign languages inciting to joy. [Biddle 61.30 - Cold War Letters #16 - copy from bound set / see also Seeds of Destruction, "Letters in a Time of Crisis" #8] «detailed view»
78. 1962/02/no? transcript from Merton Indeed the poem of Nick the Gosling is a very fine poem, Major. I think you crazy, Major, if you [Biddle 62.2 - Cold War Letters #40 - copy from bound set] «detailed view»
79. 1962/04/no? HLS to Merton All the Catholic Worker crowd (all of whom has just been bailed from the stocks by Tennessee [Biddle 62.3] «detailed view»
80. 1962/06/04 transcript from Merton Here is an answer to your riposte of the nth. Since that time my dear agent we have been in contact [Biddle 62.4 - Cold War Letters #78 - copy from bound set] «detailed view»
81. 1962/07/no? TLS to Merton am thanking you for the book of thoughts on you-know-what. very good, strong, powerful, [Biddle 62.5] «detailed view»
82. 1962/08/16 HLS[x] from Merton Zalman Schachter left no forwarding address with me - is he still there? Here is a letter for him. [Biddle 62.7 - encloses photograph of W.C. Fields at a pool table with the message: "Here is a popular sheepherder image. Very popular cockeyed sheeps."] «detailed view»
83. 1962/11/25 TAL[c] from Merton It turns out that you are among the Greeks. This is clearly educational, especially as you refer [Biddle 62.9 / CAL Pt. I-II / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
84. 1962/11/no? HLS to Merton Here is a short note from the insuls of Greichland to say that I have applied for a yo-ho-ho-erie [Biddle 62.9 / CAL Pt. I-I / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
85. 1962/12/03 TAL[c] from Merton Has just gone off to the Guggenwhaps the total conclusions of my summation and reports. [Biddle 62.10 / CAL Pt. I-III / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
86. 1963/01/12 TAL[c] from Merton What was my surprise and shock to go to the posto this am and find what do you think? [Biddle 63.1 (incorrect date of 1963/01/22 in book) / CAL Pt. I-IV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
87. 1963/06/30 TAL[c] from Merton Am I right in supposing you are still perched on that clump of islands? What a perch, and if so, [Biddle 63.2 / CAL Pt. I-V / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
88. 1963/07/27 TALS to Merton here is a bird i am send you from Patmose [-] this patmos is a splendid place. [Biddle 63.4 / CAL Pt. I-VI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon / published letter in Biddle is missing the salutation, "carissimost Mertaghs" - original contains a drawing of a bird] «detailed view»
89. 1963/09/02 HPCS to Merton Ho, ho, those sheeps was really Italians (left-overs from the last war). They got sprayed plenty [Biddle 63.6 - verso: colorized photograph of an old man on the island of Samos] «detailed view»
90. 1963/10/05 (#01) TAL[c] from Merton How come you all the time Samos? Glad about those Italian sheep and the head of the community. [Biddle 63.7 / CAL Pt. I-VII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
91. 1963/10/05 (#02) TAL[c] from Merton How come you all the time Samos? Glad about those Italian sheep and the head of the community. [copied from Sub-Section H.7, Hart Working Files / Biddle 63.7 / CAL Pt. I-VII] «detailed view»
92. 1963/10/12 TALS to Merton i am always on the march. where have i been but on the march. the banners is rippy [Biddle 63.8 / CAL Pt. I-VIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
93. 1963/10/17 TAL[c] from Merton Today I receive your secrets about the march and your reminder of the manifestoes and calligraphies [Biddle 63.9 / CAL Pt. I-IX / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
94. 1963/10/20? TALS to Merton here i am again, yr friendly correspondent. i am read again the seneca poem [Biddle 63.10 / CAL Pt. I-X / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
95. 1963/10/23 TAL[c] from Merton It is true, no one can deny that you are the most friendly of neighborhood correspondents you have [Biddle 63.11 / CAL Pt. I-XI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
96. 1963/10/30? TALS to Merton Your letter is drift ashore and i am apprised now of all that is in them. ( outside is bugles: [Biddle 63.12 / CAL Pt. I-XII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
97. 1963/11/02 TALS to Merton yrs is arrived, that is yours of the nst, and i am delighted with the following news: that you are [Biddle 63.13 / CAL Pt. I-XIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
98. 1963/11/10? TAL[c] from Merton Here is your uncle pangloss again writing hard from Moose Holler, where the Bears whoop [Biddle 63.14 / CAL Pt. I-XIV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
99. 1963/11/23? HLS to Merton (If there is a letter from you, it is now in Athens) I am think to send you bk. 1 pretty soon (which [Biddle 63.15] «detailed view»
100. 1963/11/27 (#01) HLS[x] to Merton Your letter with its many ingenious thaumistics certainly came to me at a good moment. [Biddle 63.16 / CAL Pt. I-XV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
101. 1963/11/27 (#02) TLS to Merton I think there is three from Aegina, but there is only two; so I send one from Athens, the reader [Biddle 63.17] «detailed view»
102. 1963/11/27 (#03) other to Merton AE-GI-NA [-] THREE POEMS [-] 1. sun things [-] stone things [-] be- sun be- [-] ing stone [Biddle 63.17 continued] «detailed view»
103. 1964/02/29 TNS to Merton Dear Swinger, [-] here's the handy list we promised you of all the hot spots in Rimini, [-] yrs, Zaw [not found in Biddle - includes small square cut-outs of a street map with numbered lists of attractions in Rimini] «detailed view»
104. 1964/03/05 TAL[c] from Merton First of all your prose is again from Greeks which alerts me to the fact that you have not budged [Biddle 64.1 / CAL Pt. I-XVI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
105. 1964/03/13 TALS to Merton i sit now in the island of kos among the elements: in truth at the villa apis; in very truth [Biddle 64.2 / CAL Pt. I-XVII (first paragraph deleted by Merton from A Catch of Anti-letters) / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
106. 1964/03/14 TLS to Merton me hop up&down; many things to do; many things all over the desk; goodness, goodness. [Biddle 64.3] «detailed view»
107. 1964/04/30 TLS to Merton man i think your shld write letter to and send all kinds pamphelts, pamphlets, tracts, manifestos [Biddle 64.4] «detailed view»
108. 1964/05/01 TALS to Merton here it is good friday among the orthodox (i have just again seen old pater basilis) the following [Biddle 64.5 / CAL Pt. I-XVIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon - contains a paragraph edited from all published copies] «detailed view»
109. 1964/05/05 (#01) TL to Merton dear friends in the outer circle of the john stuart mill society: i address you once again in my [Biddle 64.8 / CAL Pt. I-XXI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon - see also the same page for Biddle 64.9] «detailed view»
110. 1964/05/05 (#02) TLS to Merton i am here again at the machine, a prisoner of sorts in room 13 of the hotel rex. this hotel rex is [Biddle 64.9 / CAL Pt. I-XXII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon - on the same page as Biddle 64.8] «detailed view»
111. 1964/05/05 (#03) TLS to Merton and yes, oh yes: i am in receipt of every manifesto: of the monk in the diaspora, and suggestions [Biddle 64.9 / CAL Pt. I-XXII continued / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
112. 1964/05/08 TAL[c] from Merton That is the way. Sooner or later we start it. Who is right, we say, who is wrong, who has [Biddle 64.6 / CAL Pt. I-XIX / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
113. 1964/05/11 TAL[c] from Merton This is a great hollow banging on the building and I suppose apes have come and would enter through [Biddle 64.7 / CAL Pt. I-XX / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
114. 1964/07/04 TLS to Merton one is in kalymnos. it is better here. the books are arrived. i thank you and every monk among [Biddle 64.10 / CAL Pt. I-XXIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
115. 1964/07/10 TAL[c] from Merton With you it was four and with me is ten. July four, July ten. Patriotism and unknown wits. [Biddle 64.11] «detailed view»
116. 1964/07/17 TLS to Merton look, if you had said the gold rail; if you had said the King's Crown Hotel; but BUTLER HALL. [Biddle 64/12] «detailed view»
117. 1964/08/06 (#01) TLS to Merton here is the latest news from a tumbling universe. have thousands more to send you, but will all [Biddle 64.13] «detailed view»
118. 1964/08/06 (#02) other   BLACKISM LAUNCHED [-] LONDON, Fri. (Reuter) - A Nigerian leader calls for direct action to create [newspaper clipping about the book Blackism by Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, Deputy Premier of Western Nigeria] «detailed view»
119. 1964/10/14 TL[x] to Landes, Aloys On November 15 we will open an exhibit here of a group of abstract drawings by Thomas Merton. [see also "Landes, Aloys R." file] «detailed view»
120. 1964/10/30 HLS to Merton I am see the poems of Nagomi Burdquist in the Simes. I look upon yr picture there. Some picture. [Biddle 64.14] «detailed view»
121. 1964/10/31 (#01) TLS[x] from Merton How long you think you can hide from the long arm of the postoffice? Where have you been? [Biddle 64.15 / CAL Pt. I-XXIV] «detailed view»
122. 1964/10/31 (#02) TAL[c] from Merton How long you think you can hide from the long arm of the postoffice? Where have you been? [Biddle 64.15 / CAL Pt. I-XXIV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
123. 1964/11/26 TLS to Merton first of all happy christmas & right upon it happy new year, less pursued, more in contentments. [Biddle 64.16] «detailed view»
124. 1964/11/29 TAL[c] from Merton Well Rob we are coming seriously to the end of another calendar year, and in fact we are already [Biddle 64.17 / CAL Pt. I-XXV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
125. 1964/12/27 (#01) TL[c] from Merton Dans le cours de 1965 il faut avant toutfoutre par terre les ithyphages et les tonitruants, sans [Biddle 64.18 / CAL Pt. I-XXVI] «detailed view»
126. 1964/12/27 (#02) TAL[c] from Merton Dans le cours de 1965 il faut avant toutfourtre par terre les ithyphages et les tonitruants, sans [Biddle 64.18 / CAL Pt. I-XXVI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon - this copy includes corrections and sections crossed out, see previous record for unedited version] «detailed view»
127. 1964/12/30? HLS to Merton I am all right now - I am all over the party. Ina Lou is all over the party. This is Lily [Biddle 64.19 / CAL Pt. I-XXVII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
128. 1965/01/23 (#01) HNS to Merton Another letter from Sister Barkingham. Do you think it will be all right to send her a curt refusal [Biddle 65.1] «detailed view»
129. 1965/01/23 (#02) HLS from Hall, Suzanne One of our common editors, who strikes me as a remarkable friend of God's, judging from the sort [Sr. Suzanne Hall was a Benedictine nun of the Abbaye des Saints Jean et Scholastique in Maredret, Belgium] «detailed view»
130. 1965/02/15 (#01) TL[c] from Merton More than immediately and with even startling suddenness I mustanswer [sic] at onc [sic] the Greek [Biddle 65.2] «detailed view»
131. 1965/02/15 (#02) TLS to Merton is the sun out again. la grêche, let me tell you dear battlesworth, is so beautiful that [Biddle 65.3] «detailed view»
132. 1965/02/24 (#01) TAL[c] from Merton Wabes have brought me yours numerous with syllaboi will think i will think. Here is the facts. [Biddle 65.4 / CAL Pt. II-I / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
133. 1965/02/24 (#02) other from Merton Book of Proverbs: [-] 1. I will tell you what you can do ask me if you do not understand what I just [Biddle 65.4 continued / CAL Pt. II-Ia / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
134. 1965/03/31 HLS to Merton My head has been hurting something lately & I have been writing poems. Here are some [Biddle 65.5 - after the first page, Lax writes the rest as shape poems in red and blue ink in varying patterns] «detailed view»
135. 1965/04/02 TL[c] from Merton It comes from you in bewildering profusions the whirling note with cryptics in circulo making very [Biddle 65.6] «detailed view»
136. 1965/04/28 TL[c] from Merton You telling me mae murray is dead she sure is dead you aint gonna get no laughs out of THAT movie. [Biddle 65.7] «detailed view»
137. 1965/05/03 (#01) TLS to Merton every day [-] when joe [-] walked down [-] the street [-] he would meet [-] mrs machsli [Biddle 65.8] «detailed view»
138. 1965/05/03 (#02) HNS to Merton yrs is arrive: 1) send here the types [-] 2) that fitz is same. [-] 3) he is already take some [Biddle 65.8 continued - handwritten note on the back of the envelope] «detailed view»
139. 1965/05/06 HLS to Merton Ho- I am back, that is, away, from the visit with Padre Pio [-] I mix up everything I hardly see [Biddle 65.9] «detailed view»
140. 1965/05/26 TL[c] from Merton Just can't keep my poorself together can't remember whether I wrote about what I wrote. [Biddle 65.10] «detailed view»
141. 1965/07/17 TAL[c] from Merton There I was close to writing the cartolina when I sunk into a supposition and it developed [Biddle 65.11] «detailed view»
142. 1965/08/11 (#01) TL[c] from Merton All right then tell me this: why didn't the house collapse when we was fighting for Bramachari's [Biddle 65.13] «detailed view»
143. 1965/08/11 (#02) TALS to Merton i am prized with sorrow when i see that while i was off at the shootings in athens you were at that [Biddle 65.14 / CAL Pt. II-II / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
144. 1965/10/16 TAL[c] from Merton Well you are probably wondering why I haven't written from the camp for so long[-] I'll tell you [Biddle 65.15 / CAL Pt. II-III / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
145. 1965/10/21 (#01) HLS to Merton If you are wondering what the National Program is doing in these days of crisis, here's what it's [Biddle 65.16] «detailed view»
146. 1965/10/21 (#02) other to Merton Letter to the Editor 'HISTORY'S MESSAGE' [-] Dear Sir, [-] Here is a thought of mine, [Biddle 65.16 continued - news clipping of poem by Harry Fournier, M.D., "Mother History Speaking to the Greeks of Today", from English-language newspaper in Athens] «detailed view»
147. 1965/10/23 (#01) TLS to Merton it is good to be a hermit. i too am a hermit. it is best. always be one. it was james gutmann [Biddle 65.17] «detailed view»
148. 1965/10/23 (#02) other   winter gwaf winter [-] winter gwaf winter [-] vinter gwaf vinter [-] vinter gwaf [Biddle 65.17 - typescript of poem] «detailed view»
149. 1965/10/23 (#03) other   one of the last things left to us in uncle irwin's will ... [not in Biddle's book - typescript of two poems] «detailed view»
150. 1965/10/24 TL to Merton read HIAWATHA [two word message - not in Biddle] «detailed view»
151. 1965/11/10 TAL[c] from Merton What you mean Fitzsimmons is an indiangiver and an accepter but not a printer: have you seen [Biddle 65.18 / CAL Pt. II-IV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
152. 1965/11/13 other   [one black and white photograph (Greece?) and two newspaper clippings from comic strips - one of "Popeye" and one of "Thimble Theatre"] «detailed view»
153. 1965/12/28 TAL[c] from Merton This is the afternoon for resolutions. Nice sunny bright holiday afternoon but I chopped wood [Biddle 65.19 / CAL Pt. II-V / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
154. 1966/01/05 (#01) TALS to Merton i was in happiest receipt of yours that had the horse, & all the letters & all your news [Biddle 66.1 / CAL Pt. II-VI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
155. 1966/01/05 (#02) other to Merton GET (THAT IS DON'T FAIL TO GET) [-] LETTERS OF WM SHAKESPEARE TO HIS MOM [Biddle 66.1 continued / CAL Pt. II-VIa / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
156. 1966/01/15? TAL to Merton well, here it is days later in a brand new house: the home of aspasia & pericles. [Biddle 66.2 / CAL Pt. II-VIa / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
157. 1966/01/28 TL[c] from Merton I have in hand your aimable aeroporikes written on aspasia with fred. Yes it is wise to register [Biddle 66.3 / CAL Pt. II-VII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
158. 1966/02/15 (#01) TAL[c] from Merton You have invited me to the Deans Day Delirium (DDD) for 1966 and you have said Make Big the DDD. [Biddle 66.5 / CAL Pt. II-IX / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
159. 1966/02/15 (#02) other from Merton Today I said to Mrs Who [-] Lady you got the sanpaku [-] Throw that coffee pot away [Biddle 66.5 continued / CAL Pt. II-IXa / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
160. 1966/02/no? TALS to Merton hir again is holy patmos. patmos really holy place. what i mean dear murthwog, it's what i'd call [Biddle 66.4 / CAL Pt. II-VIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
161. 1966/03/04 TALS to Merton the minute the bird flew in with your scripts i was thrown on the floor with hilarity; such was my [Biddle 66.6 / CAL Pt. II-X / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
162. 1966/03/10 TL[c] from Merton You was thinking of Deans day well here it is. All I can say is deans have gone into doldrums [Biddle 66.7] «detailed view»
163. 1966/03/17 (#01) TAL[c] from Merton Before I run to the hosps it has come your missips with the gypsies with the old black joe [Biddle 66.8 / CAL Pt. II-XI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
164. 1966/03/17 (#02) other from Merton Instructions exhortations and imperatives [-] Find out regulator in gear seven. [-] Up town six pay [Biddle 66.8 continued / CAL Pt. II-XIa / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
165. 1966/06/01 TLS to Merton this is likely to be a short, fitful note: the only kind the birds have been uttering, too. [Biddle 66.10 / CAL Pt. II-XII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
166. 1966/06/07 TAL[c] from Merton I don't know if it is the sevens the eights or the nines of june but it come today your fitful notes [Biddle 66.11 / CAL Pt. II-XIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
167. 1966/06/11 TLS to Merton the cookies is arrived every one & with each the weights & fortunes. here is a fortune that [Biddle 66.12 / CAL Pt. II-XIIIa / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
168. 1966/07/10 HLS to Merton One does not write because of the cinemas. One is engaged to perform (arf, arf) on the films, [Biddle 66.13] «detailed view»
169. 1966/07/15 TAL[c] from Merton Yours of the 10th resting in Athens has arrived and I take note of the "restante" and the Athens, [Biddle 66.14 / CAL Pt. II-XIV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
170. 1966/07/25 TAL[c] from Merton If you do not have a script for your movies I will write one in fact many. How you met Prince [Biddle 66.15 / CAL Pt. II-XV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
171. 1966/08/12 TAL[c] from Merton While you sleep, while all Athens sleeps, Miss Velma does not sleep. She is awake and fathoming [Biddle 66.17 / CAL Pt. II-XVI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
172. 1966/09/no? HLS to Merton Miss Velma keeps me awake night & day with her questions. I'd have written long before but [Biddle 66.18 / CAL Pt. II-XVII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
173. 1966/10/08 TAL[c] from Merton At last it has come the scripts of your ult.I note with concerns every sidelong reference [Biddle 66.19 / CAL Pt. II-XVIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
174. 1966/10/22 (#01) TALS to Merton am in fastest receipt of yours of the inst. both of the edifying cables, the notes on the world [Biddle 66.20 / CAL Pt. II-XIX / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
175. 1966/10/22 (#02) other to Merton Here it is all about the morning that little Tracy Littlefield was eaten up by mistake by Mrs Rosen [Biddle 66.20 continued / CAL Pt. II-XIX continued / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon - note by Lax and newspaper clipping] «detailed view»
176. 1966/10/22 (#03) other to Merton Everything was going all right here till Rebecca Hary bucked at the part about "Slow down & live [Biddle 66.20 continued / CAL Pt. II-XIX continued / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon - note by Lax and newspaper clipping, "Cadette Girl Scouts Meet In Owls Head"] «detailed view»
177. 1966/11/03 (#01) TALS to Merton here we are again; straight from the clysters & half as good as new. each day brings to light [Biddle 66.21 / CAL Pt. II-XX / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
178. 1966/11/03 (#02) other to Merton here is all the lucky mumbers on your hit parade, including a mystery tune you can never identify. [Biddle 66.21 continued / CAL Pt. II-XX continued / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon on the back of the letter of 1966/11/03] «detailed view»
179. 1966/11/04 TL[c] from Merton It is always wise of course to help the foot into the hammock supported by the nurse. It is always [Biddle 66.22] «detailed view»
180. 1966/12/05 TALS to Merton a lot of snow has gone under the chipmunk since my last flash. i am once again in kalimpops. [Biddle 66.24 / CAL Pt. II-XXI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
181. 1966/no/no other  from ? / to Merton TO: AUTHOR OF - THE - BOOK "SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION" C/O - THE - BOOKSTORE [not in Biddle - odd jumble of handwritten notes on an envelope and a Christmas card / postmarked from "A member of Saint Philip Church Parish" in Melbourne, Kentucky] «detailed view»
182. 1967/01/07 TAL[c] from Merton Do not give it even a wink, merely testing the types, merely proving the provo, approving [Biddle 67.1 / CAL Pt. II-XXII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
183. 1967/01/18 (#01) TAL[c] from Merton Here is Towser conducting the symphony. Without force or threat, he never threatens his master's [Biddle 67.2 / CAL Pt. II-XXIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
184. 1967/01/18 (#02) TALS to Merton have been running around with all those bent arrows in my crown, but am feeling better now since [Biddle 67.3 / CAL Pt. II-XXIV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
185. 1967/01/18 (#03) other to Merton names & things [-] names & things [-] names & things [-] names & things [Biddle 67.3 continued / CAL Pt. II-XXIV continued / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
186. 1967/01/26 TAL[c] from Merton Enough of these Bradford Belly Dancers. Let them shade the Gauguins no more with their hip. [Biddle 67.4 / CAL Pt. II-XXV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
187. 1967/02/04 TAL[c] from Merton Look what is come while all Athens slept. Velma she not slept. She was with Rip Van Winthops. [Biddle 67.5 / CAL Pt. II-XXVI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
188. 1967/02/21 TALS to Merton How happy we were to hear the latest-- it cannot be the last--of Miss Velma. If now she flies it is [Biddle 67.6 / CAL Pt. II-XXVII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
189. 1967/03/05 TLS to Merton Well, it is all Dr. Whips for Towser: he should have known better. He should have thought his [Biddle 67.9] «detailed view»
190. 1967/03/no? HLS to Merton Thank you for the splendid suggestion or the long black sack: I am making it a first-rate [Biddle 67.10] «detailed view»
191. 1967/04/05 TAL[c] from Merton All is dizzy with vernals. Flowers spring up in the closets among the coats. Birds nest [Biddle 67.12 / CAL Pt. II-XXVIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
192. 1967/04/15 TLS to Merton I am just unfolding yours of the unst & here is Towser again. He is learning you say. [Biddle 67.13 / CAL Pt. II-XXIX / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
193. 1967/04/25 HLS to Merton Well, we have finally heard from Aunt. Sandor & Vashti have been giving her a lot of trouble [Biddle 67.14 / CAL Pt. II-XXX / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
194. 1967/05/17 (#01) TLS to Merton here is everything nice for forum legion. clip on magnifier blackens headlines. bullneck collar [Biddle 67.15] «detailed view»
195. 1967/05/17 (#02) other   THE AMERICAN LEGION SHOPPER [-] DARLING PET MONKEY [-] This Squirrel Monkey makes [Biddle 67.15 continued - an advertisement page from an American Legion publication] «detailed view»
196. 1967/06/11 TL[x] from Merton Yes we was all thinking of you. We was disturbed for you in the distubance. We have consulted [Biddle 67.16 - from one folder from the "New Directions Publishing" papers at Harvard, entitled "Letters (carbons) to various people, 1967"] «detailed view»
197. 1967/07/03 TL[c] from Merton Yes you are right it is fez day all over the place. I have your prints of the ult in which you [Biddle 67.18 / CAL Pt. II-XXXII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
198. 1967/07/23 (#01) HLS to Merton Just before it fell apart, my typewriter made up a batch of these & said I shld send them. [Biddle 67.19] «detailed view»
199. 1967/07/23 (#02) other   TTTTTTTTT [-] NNNNNNNNN [-] XXXXXXXXX [-] NNNNNNNNN [-] TTTTTTTTT [-] XXXXXXXXX [Biddle 67.19 continued - many strips of paper with similar strings of single letters] «detailed view»
200. 1967/07/no? TALS to Merton well you're right, it's kick the fez day now, or anyway it was. little goliath showed big samson [Biddle 67.17 / CAL Pt. II-XXXI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
201. 1967/09/05 TAL[c] from Merton do you know the great sorrows? Just heard today by clipping from Schwester Therese about Reinhardt. [Biddle 67.20 / CAL Pt. II-XXXIII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
202. 1967/09/08 HLS to Merton oy oy, sad for old Reinhardt [-] very sad for old Reinhardt [-] oy oy [-] Yrs, Max [Biddle 67.21] «detailed view»
203. 1967/09/13 TALS to Merton You are right. It is sorrows for old Reinhardt. One could weep with out let for old Reinhardt. [Biddle 67.22 / CAL Pt. II-XXXIV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
204. 1967/10/14 TAL[c] from Merton Well guess what it is Yom Kippur and I have elected to race the old race with the sun, [Biddle 67.23 / CAL Pt. II-XXXV / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
205. 1967/10/15 TLS to Merton now indeed we are all undone; it is our undoing now, every one. with the passing of Dom John Slate [Biddle 67.24 / CAL Pt. II-XXXVI / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
206. 1967/10/31 TAL[c] from Merton Guess what marse here is woe's race. Here is Mose ways to tish vup. Here is most waste of teshuvah [Biddle 67.25 / CAL Pt. II-XXXVII / photocopy in correspondence file - see bound manuscript for original or carbon] «detailed view»
207. 1967/11/07 TLS to Merton You have won the race. Starting late you have ended up early. Of all conscript poems, yours [Biddle 67.26] «detailed view»
208. 1967/11/27 TL[c] from Merton You have return, you are back to the prinzip, you is regress to the fonts, you is the oilwells, [Biddle 67.27] «detailed view»
209. 1967/12/01 (#01) TL[c] from Merton Well, guess who it is comes to meet you and shake the hand as you disembark from the Olium [Biddle 67.28] «detailed view»
210. 1967/12/01 (#02) TLS to Merton Well, here we are home again & I can't thank you enough for that crowd you sent down [Biddle 67.29] «detailed view»
211. 1967/12/13 TL[c] from Merton Imagine great flames inspiration outburst crash wap zap bowie gonna start a magazine. [Biddle 67.30] «detailed view»
212. 1967/12/20? TLS to Merton Zowie! Flap bam magazine! All bop, no $$$ four issues only. From all parts of world comes answers. [Biddle 67.31 - dated "Hanukah"] «detailed view»
213. 1968/01/21 HLS to Merton What sadness for Freedgood. And what an awful year. But I thought that year was gone. [Biddle 68.1] «detailed view»
214. 1968/01/30 TLS to Merton here is from old Jack Kerouac two poems; first treats of the very condition of man himself; [Biddle 68.2] «detailed view»
215. 1968/01/31 TL[c] from Merton What I was done is get it type up more of the ladders. I got it stck on papers more ladder for book [Biddle 68.3] «detailed view»
216. 1968/02/14 TL[c] from Merton Just trumping out the clean ribbons on the typewrapper. Just tuning up the claim rubbings [Biddle 68.5] «detailed view»
217. 1968/02/28 TL[c] from Merton Here is copies of letter sent to Teo Savory, Unicorn Press, Santa Barbara. She is very anxious [Biddle 68.6] «detailed view»
218. 1968/02/no? HLS to Merton the ladders have arrived & they are great. (these Jebusits also are very neat on the typing). [Biddle 68.4] «detailed view»
219. 1968/03/09 TL[c] from Merton Observe the letterpress. Behold the leader hats, the latterheads, the capitolio stazionario. [Biddle 68.7] «detailed view»
220. 1968/03/11 TLS to Merton Look, look, the monks pond! See letterhavens, liederpress: every imposement. see how the black [Biddle 68.8] «detailed view»
221. 1968/03/14 TL[c] from Merton yes indeed buckle the swash on that ol' Pond. Old man Pond he just' kep' rottin' along. [Biddle 68.9] «detailed view»
222. 1968/03/15 TL[c] from Merton Jolly undertakers solve population problem. The birth control of the death. The resurrection [Biddle 68.10 - a transcription error in Biddle substitutes "Barn" for the word "Bam" near the end of the first paragraph - "Bam" is correctly transcribed in The Road to Joy] «detailed view»
223. 1968/04/10 TL[c] from Merton Ho: you have now sprung full into the Beagle's nest. You are in the midst of the pups. [Biddle 68.13] «detailed view»
224. 1968/04/13 (#01) TL[c] from Merton Hohohoho. Hohohohohoh Jenl Biddle. Hhohohohohohoh Jenl Biddle. Hohohohoh Genl Beagle. [Biddle 68.14] «detailed view»
225. 1968/04/13 (#02) TL[c] from Merton PROSPECTUS FOR GENERAL BIGGLE UNIVERSITYTO ATTRACT CLOWNS AND MAKE FAMOUS. [Biddle 68.14 continued] «detailed view»
226. 1968/04/28 HNS to Merton Much pursuits [-] many dispatches [-] whirlwind life in [-] South Dakotum - SAM [Biddle 68.15] «detailed view»
227. 1968/05/04 TL[c] from Merton Well is now in the envelope all the friendly skies of United. All little pink papers admit [Biddle 68.16] «detailed view»
228. 1968/05/09 (#01) HLS to Merton every bless to the living nuns. every bless to General Redwood. from Mount Mount Gomery [Biddle 68.20] «detailed view»
229. 1968/05/09 (#02) other to Merton thisf of hre [-] ingmA.0 ancnsati [-] er t epolqaale [-] ol A ler ehm a co [-] ou e. eSou s y [not in Biddle - appears to be a photocopied jumble of letters, many are upside-down / verso (possibly handwritten by Merton): "post this."] «detailed view»
230. 1968/05/13 (#01) HLS to Merton Every greet in the west from Rapid City, S D [-] Rapid City, South Dakota. Rabbit Sitting. [Biddle 68.26] «detailed view»
231. 1968/05/13 (#02) HLS to Merton Welcome back to old chomping ground. [-] Gen. Walkout [not in Biddle's book] «detailed view»
232. 1968/05/21 HPCS to Merton Fea [-] ther [-] None [-] Sa [-] lutes [-] White [-] Fa [-] ther [-] Cheyenne, Wyoming [-] Home of [not in Biddle's book - verso: color photograph: "Minneweyakpahwin, 'Shining Water Woman,' Miss Indian America, III, All American Indian Days, Sheridan, Wyo."] «detailed view»
233. 1968/05/28 (#01) TLS to Merton I have receive your message from every direction: from red works, red rocks & from loathsome, [Biddle 68.28] «detailed view»
234. 1968/05/28 (#02) HNS to Merton Look, look! Lone protestings! Múdrost [-] Láska [not published in Biddle's book] «detailed view»
235. 1968/05/28 (#03) other   Lone protester [-] PRAGUE, Czechoslovakia- "Non-violence, Wisdom, Love" those are the words written [newspaper clipping sent to Merton with black and white photograph of a protester in Prague - anonymous lone protester who walked six days to protest the Vietnam War in front of the United States Embassy] «detailed view»
236. 1968/06/01? TL[c] from Merton Rapid Satyr Soth Daks havearrive [sic] shooting Indian pronto. Best postcarp of Rabid Smitty [Biddle 68.27] «detailed view»
237. 1968/06/17 TLS to Merton i am here in the rains of olean, engulfed in the swamps of the cattaraug. here is no picnic: never [Biddle 68.29] «detailed view»
238. 1968/06/22 TL[c] from Merton Glad news back in Cattarops but fie on all the cops and robbers which is took place up and down [Biddle 68.30] «detailed view»
239. 1968/06/26 TL[c] from Merton Here is two: first an exculpation and examination of conscripts by the New Discretion a meaculpa [Biddle 68.31] «detailed view»
240. 1968/07/05 (#01) TLS to Merton is coming, is coming [-] La Vida from General [-] Beagle. General Beagle [-] is write [Biddle 68.32] «detailed view»
241. 1968/07/05 (#02) TLS to Merton hoy [-] hoy [-] hoy [-] hoy [-] here again [-] the voids [-] of Ovid [-] NATURA ABHORRET VACUUM [Biddle 68.32 continued] «detailed view»
242. 1968/07/15? TLS to Merton hooray for Rathshneller & Winstop. is call me long dystans: shld he come to the chips [Biddle 68.35] «detailed view»
243. 1968/07/17 TL[c] from Merton What is with Granpa and the whiskey, granma's denatured alky in the publishing lounge decantur [Biddle 68.36] «detailed view»
244. 1968/07/19 TL[c] from Merton First is celebrations of natuuraabbhorrett. Wimwaimwum. Second is lemntification of Zapped Garool. [Biddle 68.33] «detailed view»
245. 1968/07/22 TL[c] from Merton Rejoice today is the fest of Murphy Magdalen [-] Festivity of Murphy's Magd rejoice festivity. [Biddle 68.37] «detailed view»
246. 1968/08/12 TLS to Merton here is everything all stacked up like planes over Denver. itinerant newsbird goes off on vacarme [Biddle 68.38] «detailed view»
247. 1968/08/17 HLS to Merton Here is old letter & drama auf Slate [-] I make my own Bowdler (thinking for Jester), still no [not published in Biddle's book] «detailed view»
248. 1968/08/18 TL[c] from Merton Well it was always topics anyway. From the start it was topics. If he could have got a chance, [Biddle 68.39] «detailed view»
249. 1968/08/30 HLS to Merton Here is many hoorays: 1) for the Fords & the opium. 2) for cargo cults 3) for Elmhurst [Biddle 68.41] «detailed view»
250. 1968/09/07 TLS to Merton You are off to the bhikus, off to the bikkhus, only this week & you are off to the biks. [Biddle 68.44] «detailed view»
251. 1975/no/no? TALS to Labrié, Ross Your letter jumped out of a bunch of other (mostly Christmas cards) today & said: answer me! response to a query about Merton's literary influences and favorites «detailed view»
252. 1987/12/23 HLS to Center from Lax, Robert Thanks for your letter, and these proofs and the Merton Seasonal. It's a pleasure to hear from you. «detailed view»
253. 1988/01/28 TL[c] from Center to Lax, Robert Thank you for your prompt reply and return of the proofsheets for THE MERTON ANNUAL, 1. «detailed view»
254. 1988/03/04 TLS to Center from Lax, Robert Thanks for your letter which arrived just days ago. Something about the mail here. «detailed view»
255. 1988/06/30 TL[c] from Center to Lax, Robert This letter will serve to introduce Arthur W/ Biddle (known as "Bill"), a member of the faculty «detailed view»
256. 1989/02/26 TLS to Center from Lax, Robert Thanks very much for sending me the Kentucky Poetry Review -- an excellent issue, and all «detailed view»
257. 1991/04/17 TLS to Center from Lax, Robert Thanks for your letter of some weeks ago. I'm pleased to hear that I'm now a member «detailed view»
258. 1991/04/24 TL[c] from Center to Lax, Robert As you know, I think, the feature in the summer issue of The Merton Seasonal will be «detailed view»
259. 1991/05/08 HLS to Center from Lax, Robert The musical mystery: I didn't write music for the poems you sent me, but I did write two «detailed view»
260. 1991/05/17 HNS to Center from Lax, Robert A new mixup! I voted for your new amendment - picked several candidates -- all my old friends «detailed view»
261. 1991/11/21 HLS to Center from Lax, Robert Many thanks, as mid-winter approaches, for the summer Seasonal, and warm congratulations on it too. «detailed view»
262. undated/no/no (#01) TLS to Merton i am forgetting to send articles by sister joan of arc and a plan for converting la russie by some [not published in Biddle's book] «detailed view»
263. undated/no/no (#02) other to Merton here is [-] longest [-] methodo [-] lojax m [-] ske whi [-] sky [-] --- [-] drown the [-] knoppss [not published in Biddle's book] «detailed view»
264. undated/no/no (#03) HNS to Merton Dear T [-] will be sending bks retorts islands nxt. wk [-] D. [-] ooooooo [-] bbbbbbb [-] ppppppp [not published in Biddle's book / one page of a handwritten note and two pages from a typewriter] «detailed view»

Printer-Friendly Version   Return to the Top of the Page