Merton, Thomas ___ 1915-1968 ___ American ___ priest

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Merton was born in Prades, France, but his father was from New Zealand and his mother from the US. Both his parents were artists who had met at art school in Paris. Merton first went to study at Cambridge, but left after only one year, and moved to the US, to study at Columbia University, where he converted to Roman Catholicism. In 1941 he entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, a community of Trappists monks, and stayed a part of the community for the rest of his life. He was a prolific writer, but it is his autobiography, 'The Seven Storey Mountain', which is most celebrated. In the 1960s, he became increasingly political and a strong supporter of the civil rights movement. His writings on the subject led to frequent criticism, especially from other Catholics. He also became very interested in Zen Buddhism, and in promoting East-West dialogue, and this led to him being praised by the Dali Lama. He died as a result of an accidental electrocution. Merton was a keen diarist, but prohibited the publishing of much of his writing until 25 years after his death. There are now many volumes of his published diaries.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Befriending the Dalai Lama

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1939-1968 ___ religious literary travel India SriLanka Thailand

WEB TEXT LINKS
some pages
some pages

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Columbia University Library - some
St. Bonaventure University - some

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals
The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton
Alaskan Journal of Thomas Merton

May 2005, amended May 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.