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

by Thomas Merton

Year 1993
Type Letter
Genre cultural criticism
Tradition Catholic
Original language English

For For readers who want Merton in his correspondence, often freer than his books; long selections best read by theme.

Should I read this?

For the general reader: 3 of 5 worth your time
For the researcher: 5 of 5 essential
Difficulty: 2 of 5 moderate

Letters to writers from 1948 to 1968, among them Waugh, Pasternak, Milosz, Baldwin, Percy and Latin American poets.

How it proceeds

Philosophic 2 of 5
Scriptural 1 of 5
Experiential 3 of 5
Sociological 3 of 5
Historical 2 of 5

Independent intensities, 0–5 — what the work is made of, not how good it is.

The Courage for Truth is one of the five volumes of Merton's selected letters published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1985-1994, volume 4 of the series, selected and edited by Christine M. Bochen and published in 1993. From 1948, when he first wrote to Evelyn Waugh, until 1968, Merton corresponded with writers around the world, among them Jacques Maritain, Czeslaw Milosz, Boris Pasternak, James Baldwin, Walker Percy, Henry Miller and Victoria Ocampo, and with younger Latin American writers such as Ernesto Cardenal; he shared with them his concerns about war, racism and repression.

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Catalog IDW.KFZ70F.G

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