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It is unsure whether these letters are all to Robert Gibney, though most or all likely are. The folder at Columbia University, which contains letters not included here and certainly to Robert Lax, is labeled “Merton letters (carbon copies) to Lax, Gibney and other close friends, ca. 1941”. In many of these letters, Lax and Bob Gerdy are mentioned in the third person, which makes the letters more likely to be to Gibney.
Robert Gibney was one of Merton's closest friends from Columbia University. He filed as a conscientious objector for World War II, but was drafted. He married another of Merton's friends after the war, Nancy Flagg, who was a graduate of Smith College in Boston. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, pp. 178-179.)
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.
Usage permission for letters to Merton from Columbia University must be obtained from the Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
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. |
1941/05/13 |
TL[x] to Merton |
Gran plasitz tenbamos herr schwarr in rencontro apud mexifluens smiffs uni pjinto estir dont los |
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«detailed view» |
| 2. |
1941/05/31 |
TL[x] to Merton |
Alors, alors my bones are sore; I have lost my piece of the candy store. Coalu, coalu, messer, |
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«detailed view» |
| 3. |
1941/07/16 |
TL[x] from Merton |
Well I be globe smuck I laff foot to break my fat tooth ridding you're thing about the viquor |
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«detailed view» |
| 4. |
1941/07/30? |
TL[x] from Merton |
Here in the thick impenetrable midsts of seven thirty we pen our advices: Keep clear of Sergeant |
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«detailed view» |
| 5. |
1941/09/10 |
TLS[x] from Merton |
Okay, I will try to answer your letter which I only just found here when I got back from my vacation |
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«detailed view» |
| 6. |
1941/10/14 |
TL[x] from Merton |
I just got your other letter. The one I mailed to you last night may strike you as a failure |
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«detailed view» |
| 7. |
1941/10/20? |
TL[x] from Merton |
I have made the most expensive consideration of yours from the recent ults, dedicated from the huts |
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«detailed view» |
| 8. |
1941/11/06 |
TL[x] from Merton |
The afternoons of sweet saint bo'ds are thick with the swelters of radio music in and out |
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«detailed view» |
| 9. |
1941/11/24 |
TL[x] from Merton |
Ke novella, capit, esse captivi. Ignominia, no senza confortabili n'est ce paso doble? |
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«detailed view» |
| 10. |
1941/11/no? |
TL[x] from Merton |
Miss Columna Figuros, our dog, brought me yours of the nth in her little sharp teeth, pearly pearly |
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«detailed view» |
| 11. |
undated/no/no |
TL[x] from Merton |
Figurry vous, me und Charlie come to New Yolk, a good place for a vphysic but not to remain for |
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«detailed view» |
| 12. |
undated/no/no |
TL[x] from Merton |
Hoping you are encore rolled up in the hots piddle, we remain: yours sincerely, Carver and Blame, |
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«detailed view» |
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