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This is a file in the correspondence of Thomas Merton under the heading: "Levertov, Denise".
Denise Levertov was a English-born poet who moved to the United States in 1948 after marrying an American, Mitchell Goodman. Goodman introduced Levertov to Robert Creeley of Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina. Creeley's direct style and derivation from the poetry establishment influenced Levertov's writing. Although published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and associated with the Beat writers, Levertov resisted this comparison and criticized much of what the movement stood for. She was an anti-war activist and campaigned against the Vietnam War.
Levertov first writes to Merton to ask whether he would send a poem for the War Resisters' League Engagement Calendar in July of 1967. Wendell Berry brought Denise Levertov to meet Merton at his hermitage on December 10, 1967 (which is recounted on that date in his published journals). Besides Levertov's letter, there had been some correspondence from Merton to Levertov ("two brief business notes" according to the 1973 letter by Richard Edelman), which are not extant. (Source: "Levertov, Denise." World Authors. 1991. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 07 Sep. 2005. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.
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.
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"
| # | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| | y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
| 1. |
1967/07/03 |
TLS to Merton |
I am editing the 1968 War Resisters' League Engagement Calendar. This calendar, with which you |
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«detailed view» |
| 2. |
1973/11/30 |
TLS[x] from Center to Levertov, Denise |
Mr. Victor Kramer at Georgia State University has requested permission to look at your |
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«detailed view» |
| 3. |
1973/12/17 |
TLS to Center from Edelman, Richard |
I am writing for Denise Levertov. First, alas, Denise cannot find her two brief business notes from |
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«detailed view» |
| 4. |
1993/no/no? |
other[x] by Levertov, Denise |
On a Theme by Thomas Merton [-] 'Adam, where are you?' [-] God's hands [-] palpate darkness, |
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[typed and handwritten manuscripts copied from Levertov's papers at Stanford for her poem, "On a Theme by Thomas Merton" with a notes page explaining, "the theme alluded to is in one of the tapes of informal lectures given at Gethsemane in the 1960's."]
«detailed view» |
| 5. |
1994/05/no |
other[x] by Levertov, Denise |
SOME THESES ABOUT CONTEMPLATION (to be continued) [H.2 5.20.94 [-] 1) Contemplaiton is a unitive |
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[notes from May to June, 1994 by Denise Levertov copied from her papers at Stanford concerning contemplation (with numerous references to Merton's works, especially The Inner Experience) and summaries of eight texts by Merton on contemplation]
«detailed view» |
| 6. |
1997/03/12? |
TALS[x] from Cummings, Charles, Fr., O.C.S.O. |
Greetings. I was just with one of our monks who has come back from the hospital after cataract |
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regarding Archer, Emily. "'Abundant, Multiple, Restless': Levertov and Merton in the 1960s" / Br. Patrick Hart at Gethsemani - photograph by "Meathead" [likely Ralph Eugene Meatyard]
«detailed view» |
| 7. |
1997/07/29? |
TLS[x] from Cummings, Charles, Fr., O.C.S.O. |
Midsummer greetings to you. Thanks for your letter of the 16th. I found it when I returned after |
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Craig Helms and his article "Mary as the New Eve in Thomas Merton's Poetry"
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| 8. |
1997/10/28? |
TLS[x] from Cummings, Charles, Fr., O.C.S.O. |
Good to hear from you once again and it is good to have the poems. They come in perfectly good time |
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death of Fr. Thomas [Fr. Thomas Aquinas Porter, O.C.S.O., of Holy Trinity Abbey, Huntsville, Utah] who served as a censor of Merton's books, and according to Cummings, "They did not see eye to eye about dotting the i's."
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