Heidbrink, John C., 1926-2006

Scope and Content

This is a file in the correspondence of Thomas Merton under the heading: "Heidbrink, John C.".

John Heidbrink was a Presbyterian minister and activist for civil rights and peace. He writes to Merton after having been in touch with Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker. It was shortly after he came to Nyack, New York, in 1960 to work as Secretary for Church Relations for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). He was a friend of Jim Forest and Daniel and Philip Berrigan, all of whom worked to found the Catholic Peace Fellowship (CPF). With Daniel Berrigan he discussed Protestant expectations for the Second Vatican Council and attended the International Peace Conference in Prague in 1964 and other Christian/Marxist seminars in Europe. Heidbrink arranged for the landmark meeting of Merton and Thich Nhât Hanh at Gethsemani in 1966. (Source: The Hidden Ground of Love, p. 401.)

#	Date	From/To	First Lines	Pub ✓	Notes
	y/m/d	Merton		Scan ✉
1.	1961/10/30 (#01)	TL[c] from Merton	Thank you for your good letter of October 25. I am glad Dorothy Day and the CW got in touch with	✓	[Cold War Letters #2] «detailed view»
2.	1961/10/30 (#02)	TLS[x] from Merton	Thank you for your good letter of October 25. I am glad Dorothy Day and the CW got in touch with	✓	[Cold War Letters #2] «detailed view»
3.	1961/10/30 (#03)	transcript from Merton	Thank you for your good letter of October 25. I am glad Dorothy Day and the CW got in touch with	✓	[Cold War Letters #2 - transcript from bound set] «detailed view»
4.	1961/11/07	TL[x] to Merton	I enclose the most recenter PAX Bulletin. You may keep it. If it isn't the one you want let me know		«detailed view»
5.	1961/11/13	TLS[x] from Merton	Thanks very much for the Pax Bulletin. It was very welcome and has been eagerly read by several	✓	«detailed view»
6.	1961/11/20	TLS[x] from Merton	First, thank you for all the books and articles which have arrived. I am reading them with great,	✓	«detailed view»
7.	1961/11/28	TL[x] to Merton	I have been away for two weeks. Therefore, excuse the delay. Red or Dead is excellent.		«detailed view»
8.	1961/12/02	TALS[x] from Merton	I will be glad to get to know the FOR better. I had never heard of it, I must confess.	✓	«detailed view»
9.	1962/01/03	TL[x] to Merton	I was discussing your new book with Professor Douglas Steere of Haverford College in Pennsylvania		«detailed view»
10.	1962/02/01	TL[x] to Merton	The Metzger piece you did is praiseworthy and deserves much gratitude from those of us who have		«detailed view»
11.	1962/02/15 (#01)	TLS[x] from Merton	Thank you for the tearsheets of Red or Dead. I assume you don't want me to return them.	✓	[Cold War Letters #38] «detailed view»
12.	1962/02/15 (#02)	transcript from Merton	Thank you for the tearsheets of Red or Dead. I assume you don't want me to return them.	✓	[Cold War Letters #38 - transcript from bound set] «detailed view»
13.	1962/05/11	TLS[x] from Merton	I am just about a month behind with mail. It is not quite as hectic here as there, but it can be	✓	«detailed view»
14.	1962/05/30	TLS[x] from Merton	Here is the little slip about using my name for the China project. Notice that I am saying nothing	✓	«detailed view»
15.	1962/06/19	TL[x] to Merton	Let me say first that Dan Berrigan's retreat with twelve Protestant ministers at the Benedictine		«detailed view»
16.	1962/08/08 (#01)	TALS[x] from Merton	Fr. McDole is here. I am glad you wrote, as the letter reached me Monday. I had forgotten about	✓	«detailed view»
17.	1962/08/08 (#02)	transcript from Merton	Fr. McDole is here. I am glad you wrote, as the letter reached me Monday. I had forgotten about	✓	[William Shannon's transcript - photocopy of original letter is faded] «detailed view»
18.	1962/09/18	TL[x] to Merton	Excuse my silence but I have been romping through the sweet old streets of Italy.		«detailed view»
19.	1962/09/25	TLS[x] from Merton	Thanks for your good letter. I am glad to hear you are back from Europe and that you want to come	✓	«detailed view»
20.	1962/11/27 (#01)	TL[x] to Merton	Excuse the beveity of this note but I am in the hospital for gall bladder operation. All is well,		«detailed view»
21.	1962/11/27 (#02)	TL[x] to Goss-Mayr, Hildegard	I have seldome been moved by a letter as much as I was by yours which came recently.		[to Jean and Hildegard Goss-Mayr] «detailed view»
22.	1962/12/09 (#01)	TL[c] from Merton	I was very sorry to hear, from Margaret Von Selle, that you were still in the hospital, or again	✓	«detailed view»
23.	1962/12/09 (#02)	TLS[x] from Merton	I was very sorry to hear, from Margaret Von Selle, that you were still in the hospital, or again	✓	«detailed view»
24.	1963/04/09 (#01)	TLS[x] from Merton	I just wrote to Glenn Smiley and gave him a message for you, but I might as well send along a copy	✓	[encloses letter of the same date to Paul Peachey] «detailed view»
25.	1963/04/09 (#02)	TAL[c] from Merton to Paul Peachey	Thanks for your letter and for the reply to my question. I have left the quote as it stands in the	✓	[encloses with letter of the same date to Heidbrink - annotation is by Heidbrink and notes that Peachey is a "Mennonite scholar who helped to arrange the retreat at M's hermitage with Muste etc."] «detailed view»
26.	1963/04/15	TL[x] to Merton	A word to say that Jim Forest, Hermine Evans and I have about given up on PAX. I have always been		«detailed view»
27.	1963/05/15	TL[x] to Merton	A brief letter: Paul Peachey and I are working with a group of Catholic scholars as we are trying		«detailed view»
28.	1963/05/20	TLS[x] from Merton	Since I have formally been forbidden to write on the subject of nuclear war, it would be unwise	✓	«detailed view»
29.	1963/05/24	TL[x] to Merton	Thanks for your note.Don't bother to reply to this one. I am grateful for the name of James Douglass		«detailed view»
30.	1963/06/04	TL[x] to Merton	The superb pictures came and also the Fenelon and Zen pieces. I must quickly thank you for them.		«detailed view»
31.	1963/09/09	TAL[x] to Merton	Excuse this brief note but there has dawned on me the necessity of going further into our life		«detailed view»
32.	1963/09/14 (#01)	HNS[x] from Merton	I think for the moment that would be too big a gang. We could not handle so many.		[written from the hospital] «detailed view»
33.	1963/09/14 (#02)	transcript from Merton	I think for the moment that would be too big a gang. We could not handle so many.		[William Shannon's transcript - photocopy of original letter is faded] «detailed view»
34.	1963/10/15 (#01)	TAL[c] from Merton	Thanks for your letter and for the prayers, which I appreciate. About thekind [sic] of group that	✓	«detailed view»
35.	1963/10/15 (#02)	TLS[x] from Merton	Thanks for your letter and for the prayers, which I appreciate. About thekind [sic] of group that	✓	«detailed view»
36.	1964/02/23 (#01)	HLS[x] from Merton	Thanks for the material on Latin America. I am sorry to hear you are ill. Take care of yourself.	✓	«detailed view»
37.	1964/02/23 (#02)	transcript from Merton	Thanks for the material on Latin America. I am sorry to hear you are ill. Take care of yourself.	✓	[William Shannon's transcript - photocopy of original letter is faded] «detailed view»
38.	1964/03/04	TL[x] to Merton	I must reply to the questions you raised in the previous letter regarding Thomas Ritt. The poor		«detailed view»
39.	1964/03/11 (#01)	TAL[c] from Merton	Thanks for the information about T. Ritt. I know he is having a very hard time and my impression	✓	«detailed view»
40.	1964/03/11 (#02)	TLS[x] from Merton	Thanks for the information about T. Ritt. I know he is having a very hard time and my impression	✓	«detailed view»
41.	1964/03/16	TL[x] to Merton	Thanks for your letter. Lochman was moved, too, by the visit. I enclose I.F. Stone's (Jewish		«detailed view»
42.	1964/05/09 (#01)	TAL[c] from Merton	I have your letter of April 29th here, and the memo about PD East, for which thanks. He was here,	✓	«detailed view»
43.	1964/05/09 (#02)	TLS[x] from Merton	I have your letter of April 29th here, and the memo about PD East, for which thanks. He was here,	✓	«detailed view»
44.	1964/09/14	TAL[c] from Merton	How are you? And where are you? I thought I had better drop you a line and find out where things	✓	«detailed view»
45.	1964/09/17	TALS to Merton	I am eleven years married today. At twenty five I would not have thought for a moment that such joy		«detailed view»
46.	1964/09/19 (#01)	TAL[c] from Merton	Thanks for the very good letter. Yes, I will be thinking about all those things. The great thing	✓	«detailed view»
47.	1964/09/19 (#02)	TLS[x] from Merton	Thanks for the very good letter. Yes, I will be thinking about all those things. The great thing	✓	«detailed view»
48.	1964/09/26	HCS to Merton	Dan cannot come earlier than Nov. 18. I'm in England Nov. 16-28. Rat! I've just received my		«detailed view»
49.	1964/10/29	TALS to Merton	Things are shaping up for the wake-in-preparation at Trappist with these key people from the peace		«detailed view»
50.	1964/10/no?	TL[c] from Merton	Thanks for your card. I think the best thing would be to plan on the group coming Nov. 18-20,	✓	[undated] «detailed view»
51.	1964/11/26	TL[c] from Merton	By now you may have heard reports from others of the retreat last week. I think we all felt it was	✓	«detailed view»
52.	1964/12/01	HLS[x] from Nelson, John Oliver "Jack"	Nary another day must go by without my 1) saluting you on what I hear of your operation and its		Jack Nelson thanks Heidbrink for "that amazing Thomas Merton experience" (retreat at Gethsemani, "The Spiritual Roots of Protest") «detailed view»
53.	1965/01/15	TALS to Merton	Excuse this typing business. It will probably turn out like an ancient scratch sheet. But everyone		«detailed view»
54.	1965/01/22	TL[c] from Merton	It was very good to have your special delivery letter, first because it give me news that you are	✓	«detailed view»
55.	1965/01/27	TL[x] to Merton	Thanks for writing. I understand your point. Dan will consider doing it, I think. Hope so!		«detailed view»
56.	1965/04/30 (#01)	TL[c] from Merton	I just got your note about Jean and Hidegarde [sic], and was planning in any case to answer your	✓	[Jean and Hildegard Goss-Mayr] «detailed view»
57.	1965/04/30 (#02)	TALS[x] from Merton	I just got your note about Jean and Hidegarde [sic], and was planning in any case to answer your	✓	[handwritten postscript not in published letter or on carbon] A.J. Muste / Jean and Hildegard Goss-Mayr «detailed view»
58.	1965/05/16	TALS[x] from Merton	Here is a first draft of a letter I am hoping to send off to Paul VI tomorrow. I was shocked but not		«detailed view»
59.	1965/06/16 (#01)	TAL[c] from Merton	Many thanks for the card. You can certainly have the Simone Weil essay to print, though I presume	✓	«detailed view»
60.	1965/06/16 (#02)	TALS[x] from Merton	Many thanks for the card. You can certainly have the Simone Weil essay to print, though I presume	✓	[handwritten postscript not in published letter or on carbon] «detailed view»
61.	1965/07/25	TL[c] from Merton	I have been waiting for a chance to make some thoughtful comment on your excellent notes on the Just	✓	«detailed view»
62.	1965/11/16	TL[x] to Merton	Jim Forest shared your letter with me today. I am merely writing for Jim's sake, I guess, rather		«detailed view»
63.	1965/11/20 (#01)	TAL[c] from Merton	Yesterday I got very good letters from Dan and Jim and answered them immediately. Today I received	✓	«detailed view»
64.	1965/11/20 (#02)	TLS[x] from Merton	Yesterday I got very good letters from Dan and Jim and answered them immediately. Today I received	✓	«detailed view»
65.	1965/12/04 (#01)	TAL[c] from Merton	First, thanks for your note and the enclosures. All were helpful. I owe you (and here you	✓	[see Section E.1 of the classification (Manuscript Essays) under the title "Concerning the Catholic Peace Fellowship" - annotated carbon copy of this letter is included in file for this unpublished essay - also included are letters of December 3 and 5 from Merton to Jim Forest and Tom Cornell (respectively)] «detailed view»
66.	1965/12/04 (#02)	TALS[x] from Merton	First, thanks for your note and the enclosures. All were helpful. I owe you (and here you	✓	[see Section E.1 of the classification (Manuscript Essays) under the title "Concerning the Catholic Peace Fellowship" - annotated carbon copy of this letter is included in file for this unpublished essay - also included are letters of December 3 and 5 from Merton to Jim Forest and Tom Cornell (respectively)] «detailed view»
67.	1965/12/17	TL[x] to Merton	Thanks for writing. I understand your point. Dan will consider doing it, I think. Hope so!		[seems to be missing a page or pages of the letter] «detailed view»
68.	1966/01/26	other[x]	THOMAS MERTON IN SECLUSION: MONK PLANS TO LIMIT WRITING by Religious News Service (1-26-66)		«detailed view»
69.	1966/05/20 (#01)	telegram to Merton	UNEXPECTED ARRIVAL U S A #3 BUDDIST [sic] LEADER FROM VIETNAM HE AND I IN LOUISVILLE		[Thich Nhat Hanh] «detailed view»
70.	1966/05/20 (#02)	TL[c] from Merton	Your telegram arrived today and though I am not able to give an absolutely definite answer,	✓	«detailed view»
71.	1966/05/20 (#03)	TALS[x] from Merton	Your telegram arrived today and though I am not able to give an absolutely definite answer,	✓	[many notes by Heidbrink on the letter] «detailed view»
72.	1966/05/30 (#01)	HNS[x] from Merton	Here is the corrected text. I find it is my last available copy, but I can get more run off.	✓	«detailed view»
73.	1966/05/30 (#02)	transcript from Merton	Here is the corrected text. I find it is my last available copy, but I can get more run off.	✓	[William Shannon's transcript - photocopy of original letter is faded] «detailed view»
74.	1966/06/01 (#01)	HNS[x] from Merton	My face is red like this pen. Proofs for "Blessed Are the Meek" just came in. I forgot entirely	✓	«detailed view»
75.	1966/06/01 (#02)	HNS[x] from Merton	My face is red like this pen. Proofs for "Blessed Are the Meek" just came in. I forgot entirely	✓	[William Shannon's transcript - photocopy of original letter is faded] «detailed view»
76.	1966/06/07	TCS to Merton	You are to send me the corrected copy of "Blessed are the meek". You gave Nhat an uncorrected copy.		«detailed view»
77.	1966/06/13 (#01)	TLS[x] from Merton	I have your card of the 7th. Sent the corrected copy of Blessed Are the Meek some time before that,	✓	«detailed view»
78.	1966/06/13 (#02)	TALS[x] from Merton to John Heidbrink and others	A STATEMENT concerning Thich Nhat Hanh. by Thomas Merton. This is not a political statement.		[written 1966/05/29 - enclosed with 1966/06/13 letter to Heidbrink] «detailed view»
79.	1966/06/22	HLS to Merton	Thanks for the "goodies". Chinese Thought lights a flame. Humanism and the		«detailed view»
80.	1966/06/26 (#01)	TL[c] from Merton	Thanks for your letter: I think the idea of translating Nhat's little book on Buddhism is a good one	✓	«detailed view»
81.	1966/06/26 (#02)	TLS[x] from Merton	Thanks for your letter: I think the idea of translating Nhat's little book on Buddhism is a good one	✓	«detailed view»
82.	1966/07/13	TLS to Merton	I am returning the photos. Please excuse my tardiness. I am pretty well sure now of being able		«detailed view»
83.	1966/07/15	TCS[x] from Merton	I thought you would be interested in this piece. I have sent it to Cross Currents, but have no idea	✓	[Merton sends "Buddhism and the Modern World" / also copy of first page of essay with a handwritten note by Merton] «detailed view»
84.	1966/07/21	HCS to Merton	Thanks for writing and for the Buddhist piece. I've not read yet. If you are not going to send		«detailed view»
85.	1966/08/01	TLS[x] from Merton	Did I answer your card and send more Buddhist pieces? Probably not yet. Here are a few more.	✓	«detailed view»
86.	1966/08/02 (#01)	HNS to Merton	I send this on since it is the most recent news we have. Hassler leaves Sunday to join Nhat again		[handwritten note on photocopy of a letter from Thich Nhat Hanh - see next record] «detailed view»
87.	1966/08/02 (#02)	HLS[x] from Nhât Hanh, Thich / to Ray [?]	Thank you so much for your letters and for what you have been doing for us. I just returned from		[photocopy of a handwritten letter from Thich Nhat Hanh, address to "Ray" - see previous record for note from John Heidbrink to Merton] «detailed view»
88.	1966/08/10	HLS to Merton	I've read twice the piece you wrote on Buddhism and Social awakening. Thanks for doing it		«detailed view»
89.	1967/03/05	TL[c] from Merton	Glad to have you come by yourself, or with just one or two others. I don't relish the large group	✓	«detailed view»
90.	1967/04/22	TL[c] from Merton	Thanks for your real good letter of the 1st. I was especially interested to hear something about	✓	«detailed view»
91.	1983/10/24 (#01)	TLS[x] from Shannon, William	I hope you don't mind my calling you "John." After reading your name so often in the other		«detailed view»
92.	1983/10/24 (#02)	other	Heidbrink to Merton [-] May 20, 1966 H to M - telegram [-] Unexpected arrival USA Buddhist leader		«detailed view»
93.	1984/02/17 (#01)	HLS to Shannon, William	Finally I've photocopied the Tom letters for your project. I've made available only those which		«detailed view»
94.	1984/02/17 (#02)	HNS to Shannon, William	Pls. ignore my scribble on the letters - they unfortunately reproduced and do not function as any		«detailed view»
95.	1984/02/27	TLS[x] from Shannon, William	It was a delight for me to receive the Merton letters you sent. Since I have been working on the		«detailed view»
96.	1984/03/10	HLS to Shannon, William	Not convinced at all by your letter; and neither am I angered. It's best a part of Merton floats		[verso of letter is photocopy of a typescript for Merton's poem from Emblems of a Season of Fury, "A Dream at Arles on the Night of the Mistral"] «detailed view»
97.	undated/no/no	HLS to Merton	pictures not ready yet - Here is one way your great statement was used -		«detailed view»

The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

Merton's Correspondence with:

Heidbrink, John C., 1926-2006

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