Thomas Merton and James Laughlin: Selected Letters

The remarkable development of Thomas Merton—monk, poet, and social critic—as documented in nearly thirty years of correspondence with his publisher. Thomas Merton may have seemed an unlikely candidate for a best-selling author. Cloistered in a remote Kentucky monastery, Merton struggled as a young man to reconcile the contemplative life he sought as a monk and his very public passion for writing. Publisher James Laughlin saw Merton's talent and played the muse, encouraging him with the poem...