The Courage for Truth: The Letters of Thomas Merton to Writers - Hardcover

Merton, Thomas

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374130558 ISBN 13: 9780374130558

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1993

Synopsis

From 1948 (when he first wrote to Evelyn Waugh, who was editing The Seven Storey Mountain for publication in England) until his death in 1968, Thomas Merton corresponded with writers around the world, developing an ever-widening circle of friends in Europe, the Soviet Union, South and North America. Merton wrote, and heard from, many prominent writers of the stature of Waugh, Jacques Maritain, Czeslaw Milosz, Boris Pasternak, James Baldwin, Walker Percy, Henry Miller, and Victoria Ocampo. He also corresponded with and encouraged newer writers in Latin America, like Ernesto Cardenal.
Merton sensed in these writers a hope for the future of humanity and believed that the courage for truth was their special gift. Writing to Jose Coronel Urtecho, Merton asserted that poets "remain almost the only ones who have anything to say . . . They have the courage to disbelieve what is shouted with the greatest amount of noise from every loudspeaker."
Courage rooted in true freedom is evident in Merton's own life. He shared with his literary friends his concerns about war, violence and repression, racism and injustice, and all forms of human aggression. Forbidden to publish on the subject of war by his superiors, he obeyed but continued to circulate his famous "Cold War Letters." He did not hesitate to criticize his church when he saw there was more concern for the institutional structure than there was for people. Merton especially admired those who had the courage to write under oppression, like Pasternak, Milosz, and Cardenal.

About this title

About the Author:

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk in the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky. He has been revered throughout the world for the depth and profundity of his thoughts on religion, reflection, and the world's possibilities since his bestselling The Seven Storey Mountain was published in 1948. His other works include The Sign of Jonas, New Seeds of Contemplation, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, The Way of Chuang Tza, and Mystics and Zen Masters.

"It's now apparent that Merton, already celebrated as an autobiographer and Christian contemplative, was also one of the great American letter-writers of the century." -- Kirkus Reviews

"A necessary addition to the library of Merton scholars and students because it reveals aspects of the monk that are seldom seen in literature apart from his letters . . . Highly recommended." -- booklist

"Vintage Merton . . . human . . . witty . . . confessional . . . insightful . . . devout." -- The Boston Globe

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0374130558
• ISBN 13: 9780374130558
• Binding: Hardcover
• Editor: Bochen Christine M.