The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Lax, Robert, 1915-2000

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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

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.

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