Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968) was a 20th century American Catholic writer. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist and student of comparative religion. In 1949, he was ordained to the priesthood and given the name Father Louis.
Merton wrote more than 70 books, mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews, including his best-selling autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), which sent scores of disillusioned World War II veterans, students, and even teen-agers flocking to monasteries across US, and was also featured in National Review's list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century.
Merton was a keen proponent of interfaith understanding. He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures, including the Dalai Lama, D.T. Suzuki, the Japanese writer on the Zen tradition, and the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Merton has also been the subject of several biographies.
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The seven storey mountain
23 editions - first published in 1948 Checked out -
Thoughts in solitude
18 editions - first published in 1958 Borrow -
Seeds of contemplation
18 editions - first published in 1949 Checked out -
No man is an island
16 editions - first published in 1955 -
Bread in the wilderness
14 editions - first published in 1953 -
The sign of Jonas
12 editions - first published in 1953 Borrow -
The silent life
11 editions - first published in 1957 -
The living bread
11 editions - first published in 1956 Borrow -
The waters of Siloe
10 editions - first published in 1949 Borrow -
Conjectures of a guilty bystander
10 editions - first published in 1965 Borrow -
The last of the Fathers: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and the encyclical letter, Doctor Mellifluus
9 editions - first published in 1954 -
The hidden ground of love: the letters of Thomas Merton on religious experience and social concerns
9 editions - first published in 1985 Borrow -
The new man
9 editions - first published in 1961 Borrow -
Life and holiness
8 editions - first published in 1963 Borrow -
Seeds of destruction
8 editions - first published in 1964 Borrow -
Contemplative prayer
8 editions - first published in 1969 Checked out -
Contemplation in a world of action
6 editions - first published in 1971 -
What is contemplation?
6 editions - first published in 1948 -
Exile Ends In Glory: The Life Of A Trappistine, Mother M. Berchmans
6 editions - first published in 1948 -
Spiritual Direction and Meditation
6 editions - first published in 1960 -
Dialogues with Silence: Prayers and Drawings
6 editions - first published in 2001 Borrow -
Entering the Silence
6 editions - first published in 1995 Borrow -
The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals
6 editions - first published in 1999 Borrow -
The secular journal of Thomas Merton
6 editions - first published in 1959 Borrow -
Raids on the unspeakable
6 editions - first published in 1964 Borrow -
Elected silence: the autobiography of Thomas Merton
5 editions - first published in 1949 -
The road to joy: the letters of Thomas Merton to new and old friends
5 editions - first published in 1989 -
A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals
5 editions - first published in 2004 -
Seasons of celebration: meditations on the cycle of liturgical feasts
5 editions - first published in 1965 -
A Thomas Merton reader: Edited by Thomas P. McDonnell.
5 editions - first published in 1962 -
Love and living
5 editions - first published in 1979 -
Opening the Bible
5 editions - first published in 1970 Borrow -
A secular journal
5 editions - first published in 1959 Borrow -
The springs of contemplation: a retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani
5 editions - first published in 1992 Borrow -
New seeds of contemplation
5 editions - first published in 1962 Checked out -
Basic principles of monastic spirituality
4 editions - first published in 1957 -
The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation
4 editions - first published in 2003 -
The climate of monastic prayer
4 editions - first published in 1965 -
Faith and violence: Christian teaching and Christian practice.
4 editions - first published in 1968 Borrow -
Selected poems: With an introd. by Mark Van Doren.
4 editions - first published in 1959 Borrow -
Zen and the birds of appetite
4 editions - first published in 1968 Borrow -
Thomas Merton
4 editions - first published in 1989 -
Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom (Merton, Thomas//Journal of Thomas Merton)
3 editions - first published in 1997 -
St Maedoc: fragment of an Ikon
3 editions - first published in 1970 -
Praying the Psalms
3 editions - first published in 1956 -
Peace in the post-Christian era: draft with author's corrections, 1962?
3 editions - first published in 1962 -
Original child bomb: points for meditation to be scratched on the walls of a cave
3 editions - first published in 1962 -
Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz
3 editions - first published in 1996 -
The monastic journey
3 editions - first published in 1977 -
Introductions East & West: the foreign prefaces of Thomas Merton
3 editions - first published in 1981 -
The Other Side of the Mountain: The End of the Journey (Merton, Thomas//Journal of Thomas Merton)
3 editions - first published in 1998 -
The strange islands: poems
3 editions - first published in 1957 -
Dancing in the water of life: seeking peace in the hermitage
3 editions - first published in 1997 Borrow -
Turning Toward the World: The Pivotal Years (The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 4: 1960-1963)
3 editions - first published in 1997 Borrow -
Cistercian life
3 editions - first published in 1974 Borrow -
Thomas Merton on peace: With an introd. by Gordon C. Zahn.
3 editions - first published in 1971 Borrow -
Thomas Merton: a life in letters: the essential collection
2 editions - first published in 2008 -
Cassian
2 editions - first published in 1994 -
Emblems of a season of fury
2 editions - first published in 1963 -
Hagia Sophia
2 editions - first published in 1962 -
Developing a Conscience
2 editions - first published in 1991 -
Albert Camus' The plague: introd. and commentary.
2 editions - first published in 1968 -
Witness to freedom: the letters of Thomas Merton in times of crisis
2 editions - first published in 1994 -
Selected poems of Thomas Merton
2 editions - first published in 1959 -
Die Bibel öffnen. Ein Essay
2 editions - first published in 2002 -
Seeds
2 editions - first published in 2002 -
Figures for an apocalypse: [Poems]
2 editions - first published in 1947 -
Nul n'est une île
2 editions - first published in 1956 -
A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True LifeThe Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3: 1952-1960 (Merton, Thomas//Journal of Thomas Merton)
2 editions - first published in 1997 -
Solitude
2 editions - first published in 1988 -
Reflections on My Work
2 editions - first published in 1989 -
Cistercian contemplatives
2 editions - first published in 1948 -
The pocket Thomas Merton
2 editions - first published in 2005 -
Sufism
2 editions - first published in 1994 -
Monastic Spirituality: Citeaux
2 editions - first published in 1994 -
A catch of anti-letters
2 editions - first published in 1978 -
A man in the divided sea
2 editions - first published in 1946 -
Gandhi on non-violence
2 editions - first published in 1965 -
An introduction to Cistercian theology: lectures given to the scholastics in the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani.
2 editions - first published in 1935 -
Essays
2 editions - first published in 1981 -
Thomas Merton on Zen
2 editions - first published in 1976 -
The waters of silence
2 editions - first published in 1950 -
Redeeming the time
2 editions - first published in 1966 -
The behavior of Titans
2 editions - first published in 1961 -
Pre-Benedictine Monasticism: Initiation into the Monastic Tradition 2 (Monastic Wisdom)
2 editions - first published in 2006 -
The nonviolent alternative
2 editions - first published in 1980 DAISY -
Silence
2 editions - first published in 1988 -
Cold War Letters
2 editions - first published in 1960 -
The geography of Lograire
2 editions - first published in 1969 -
Ishi means man
2 editions - first published in 1976 -
Choosing to Love the World: on contemplation
2 editions - first published in 2008 -
An Introduction to Christian Mysticism
2 editions - first published in 2008 -
Semences de contemplation
2 editions - first published in 1952 -
The school of charity: the letters of Thomas Merton on religious renewal and spiritual direction
2 editions - first published in 1990 -
Marthe, Marie et Lazare
2 editions - first published in 1956 -
The courage for truth: the letters of Thomas Merton, to writers
2 editions - first published in 1993 -
Honorable Reader: Reflections on My Work
2 editions - first published in 1989 -
El Camino de Chuang Tzu
2 editions - first published in 1996 -
Cables to the Ace: or, Familiar liturgies of misunderstanding.
2 editions - first published in 1968 Borrow -
Woods, Shore, Desert: A Notebook, May 1968
2 editions - first published in 1982 Borrow
Thomas Merton
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Thomas Merton (1915-1968),
John of the Cross Saint (1542-1591),
Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint (1090 or 91-1153),
M. Berchmans Mother (1876-1915),
Lutgardis Saint (1182-1246),
Czesław Miłosz,
Jesus Christ,
Robert Lax,
Zhuangzi,
Adam of Perseigne (1145-1221),
Aelred Graham (1907-),
Albert Camus (1913-1960),
Benedict Saint, Abbot of Monte Cassino,
Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint,
Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint (1091-1153),
Bernard, of Clairvaux Saint (1090 or 91-1153),
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (1890-1960),
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966),
Gandhi Mahatma (1869-1948),
James Laughlin (1914-),
John Cassian (ca. 360-ca. 435),
Jonathan Greene (1943-),
Maedoc of Ferns, Saint (d. ca. 626),
Marie Berchmans Mother (1876-1915),
Mary Blessed Virgin, Saint
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History Created April 1, 2008 · 5 revisions
| October 29, 2010 | Edited by Prajña | Edited without comment. |
| October 29, 2010 | Edited by Prajña | Added new photo |
| October 29, 2010 | Edited by Prajña | merge authors |
| September 11, 2008 | Edited by RenameBot | fix author name |
| April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | initial import |