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Title:

On Thomas Merton / Mary Gordon.

Author:

Gordon, Mary, 1949- author.

ISBN:

9781611803372

Personal Author:

Gordon, Mary, 1949- author.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

147 pages ; 21 cm

Content Type:

text

Media Type (RDA):

unmediated

Carrier Type:

volume

Contents:

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

Abstract:

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.'"--Dust jacket.

Personal Subject:

Merton, Thomas, 1915-1968.

Subject Term:

Monks -- United States.

Christian life -- Catholic authors.

Genre:

Biographies.

Format:

Books

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Library	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... Lockport Public Library	34094004594357	B MERTON	Searching... Unknown
Searching... North Tonawanda Public Library	34120006521575	B MERTON	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Thomas Merton (1815-1968) was a Trappist monk, poet, essayist, activist, and author of some of the most influential spiritual writing of the 20th century. He entered the Trappist monastery of Gethsemani in Kentucky as a young man in his twenties, seemingly abandoning the promising literary career that lay before him. But from the silent cloister in which he spent all but the last few weeks of his life, his influence spread throughout the world through his writing, primarily on topics related to the spiritual life--a subject which he demonstrated to be very broad indeed. His life of dialogue led him to explore a range of contemplative practices, particularly Buddhism, and he was one of the pioneers in raising awareness in Buddhist philosophy and practice among Westerners. Mary Gordon, as a Catholic in critical dialogue with her church, came to explore Merton relatively late in her own journey, becoming fascinated with him through his writing, particularly as a fellow writer. She documents her exploration of Merton though his books--the ups and downs of the experience, areas of disagreement and sympathy, of annoyance and, ultimately, deep connection. It's a profoundly personal view of one of the great spiritual figures of our age, by an interpreter who, while disinclined to go easy on her famous subject, reveals a great admiration and fascination with him.

Author Notes

MARY GORDON is a novelist, essayist, memoirist, literary critic, and the McIntosh Professor of English at Barnard College. She is the author of many books, including Final Payments , Circling My Mother , Reading Jesus , The Shadow Man , and The Company of Women . She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, an O Henry Award, and an Academy Award for Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In March 2008, Governor Eliot Spitzer named Mary Gordon the official New York State Author and gave her the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction. She was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the New York Writers Hall of Fame in 2010.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This brilliant, incisive work from biographer, novelist, and memoirist Gordon (Reading Jesus) examines the relationship-and tension-between 20th-century Christian philosopher Thomas Merton's dual roles as writer and monk. Gordon approaches her subject through four facets of Merton's writing life: his relationship with the church that censored him; his bestselling memoir, The Seven-Story Mountain; his novel My Argument with the Gestapo; and his private journals (which Gordon quotes from extensively). The author depicts a man often in conflict with himself and his church, a man who felt compelled to write and yet who hated being pressured to write: "I am sickened by being treated as an article for sale, as a commodity... God have mercy on me," and later, "Today I feel hateful, and miserable, exhausted, and I would gladly die... Abbot Dom James [his host and patron] is in absolute control of a bird that everyone wants to hear sing." The section on his journals, where Merton expressed himself freely, is the strongest part of the book-particularly Gordon's reaction to entries written shortly before Merton's death in 1968. "Because this flawed mess of a man lived every day with fullness, with a heartfelt passion," Gordon writes, "I close the journal, and I weep." Readers will be just as affected by this intelligent, moving book. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

Novelist Gordon (There Your Heart Lies, 2017) hadn't thought much about Thomas Merton (1915-68) as a writer, but when asked -- because she "was the only literary person at Columbia known to be a practicing Catholic" -- to lecture about him in honor of the centenary of his birth, she accepted. Here she expands on the lecture, focusing on Merton as writer while acknowledging that he is known and read today not as either writer or Trappist monk but as a writer-monk. She discusses Merton's correspondence about writing with fellow Catholic authors Evelyn Waugh and Czeslaw Milosz; the autobiographical best-seller The Seven Storey Mountain (1948); the only novel (of four) that he saved, My Argument with the Gestapo (1969), written in 1941; and the six volumes of his journals. Gordon finds his poetry minor and his pious moments off-putting, so she goes straight to his greatest gift: his power of close observation, which perforce displays the love of language he shared with his master, James Joyce. Gordon quotes lavishly throughout, making this intense little book an ideal introduction to Merton for literary readers.--Ray Olson Copyright 2018 Booklist

1 Writer to Writer: But What Kind?	p. 1
2 The Seven Storey Mountain	p. 41
3 My Argument with the Gestapo	p. 63
4 Tire Journals	p. 87
Notes	p. 135
Works Cited	p. 143
Credits	p. 145

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

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