Portland Public Library

On Thomas Merton, Mary Gordon

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 143-144)

no index present

non fiction

On Thomas Merton

bibliography

1028821112

Mary Gordon

An exploration of Thomas Merton, who became the face and voice of mid-twentieth-century American Catholicism. Approaching Merton "writer to writer," Gordon illuminates his life and work through his letters, journals, autobiography, and fiction--Adapted from jacket"'If Thomas Merton had been a writer and not a monk, we would never have heard of him. If Thomas Merton had been a monk and not a writer, we would never have heard of him.' So begins acclaimed author Mary Gordon in this probing, candid exploration of the man who became the face and voice of mid-twentieth-century American Catholicism. Approaching Merton 'writer to writer, ' Gordon illuminates his life and work through his letters, journals, autobiography, and fiction. Pope Francis has celebrated Merton as 'a man of dialogue, ' and here Gordon shows that the dialogue was as much internal as external--an unending conversation, and at times a heated conflict, between Merton the monk and Merton the writer. Rich with excerpts from Merton's own writing, On Thomas Merton produces an intimate portrait of a man who 'lived life in all its imperfectability, reaching toward it in exaltation, pulling back in anguish, but insisting on the primacy of his praise as a man of God.'"--Jacket

Writer to writer: but what kind? -- The seven storey mountain -- My argument with the Gestapo -- The journals