Editing Thomas Merton (section)

===Writer===
Merton kept journals throughout his stay at Gethsemani. Initially, he felt writing to be at odds with his vocation, worried it would foster a tendency to individuality. But his superior, Dunne, tasked Merton beginning in 1943 to translate religious texts and write biographies of saints.

On March 19, 1944, Merton made his temporary [[religious vows|vows]] and was given the black [[scapular]] and leather belt. In November 1944 a manuscript Merton had given to friend [[Robert Lax]] the previous year was published by [[James Laughlin]] at [[New Directions Publishing|New Directions]]: a book of [[poetry]] titled ''Thirty Poems''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Merton |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=epHws7LjWw0C&dq=Thirty+Poems+merton&pg=IA5 |title=The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton |date=1977 |publisher=New Directions Publishing |isbn=978-0-8112-0769-0 |pages=25 |language=en}}</ref> In 1946 New Directions published another poetry collection by Merton, ''A Man in the Divided Sea'', which, combined with ''Thirty Poems'', attracted some recognition for him. The same year Merton's manuscript for ''The Seven Storey Mountain'' was accepted by [[Harcourt Brace & Company]]. ''The Seven Storey Mountain'', Merton's [[autobiography]], was written during two-hour intervals in the monastery [[scriptorium]] as a personal project.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cunningham |first1=Lawrence S. |last2=Martin |first2=James |last3=Weis |first3=Monica |last4=Weiss |first4=Monica |last5=Pycior |first5=Julie Leininger |date=2015 |title=Merton at One Hundred: Reflections on "The Seven Storey Mountain" |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44195542 |journal=American Catholic Studies |volume=126 |issue=2 |pages=69–80 |jstor=44195542 |issn=2161-8542}}</ref>

On March 19, 1947 he took his solemn vows, binding for life. He also began corresponding with a [[Carthusian]] at [[St. Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster|St. Hugh's Charterhouse]] in England. Merton had harbored an appreciation for the Carthusian order since coming to Gethsemani in 1941, and would later come to consider leaving the Cistercians for that order.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grayston |first=Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoecCQAAQBAJ&dq=merton+and+carthusians&pg=PA56 |title=Thomas Merton and the Noonday Demon: The Camaldoli Correspondence |date=2015-05-19 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-4982-0937-3 |pages=56 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1948 ''The Seven Storey Mountain'' was published to critical acclaim, with fan mail to Merton reaching new heights. Merton also published several works for the monastery that year, which were: ''Guide to Cistercian Life'', ''Cistercian Contemplatives'', ''Figures for an Apocalypse'', and ''The Spirit of Simplicity''. That year [[Saint Mary's College (Indiana)]] also published a booklet by Merton, ''What Is Contemplation?'' Merton published as well that year a biography, ''Exile Ends in Glory: The Life of a Trappistine, Mother M. Berchmans, O.C.S.O''. Merton's abbot, Dunne, died on August 3, 1948, while riding on a train to [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]. Dunne's passing was painful for Merton, who had come to look on the abbot as a father figure and spiritual mentor. On August 15 the monastic community elected Dom James Fox, a former [[US Navy]] officer, as their new abbot. In October Merton discussed with him his ongoing attraction to the Carthusian and [[Camaldolese]] orders and their [[eremitical]] way of life, to which Fox responded by assuring Merton that he belonged at Gethsemani. Fox permitted Merton to continue his writing, Merton now having gained substantial recognition outside the monastery. On December 21 Merton was ordained as a [[subdeacon]]. From 1948 on, Merton identified himself as an [[anarchist]].<ref name="Labrie 2001 p. 207">{{cite book | last=Labrie | first=R. | title=Thomas Merton and the Inclusive Imagination | publisher=University of Missouri Press | year=2001 | isbn=978-0-8262-6279-0 | url=https://archive.org/details/thomasmertonincl00labr | url-access=registration | access-date=May 7, 2017 | page=[https://archive.org/details/thomasmertonincl00labr/page/207 207]}}</ref>

On January 5, 1949, Merton took a train to [[Louisville]] and applied for American citizenship. Published that year were ''Seeds of Contemplation'', ''The Tears of Blind Lions'', ''The Waters of Siloe'',<ref>Lekai claims that Siloe was Merton's "only truly historical work." Lekai, Louis (1978). "Thomas Merton - the Historian?". Cistercian Studies. 13 (4): 387. </ref> and the British edition of ''The Seven Storey Mountain'' under the title ''Elected Silence''. On March 19, Merton became a deacon in the order, and on May 26 ([[Ascension Thursday]]) he was ordained a priest, saying his first Mass the following day. In June, the monastery celebrated its [[centenary]], for which Merton authored the book ''Gethsemani Magnificat'' in commemoration. In November, Merton started teaching [[mystical theology]] to novices at Gethsemani, a duty he greatly enjoyed. By this time Merton was a huge success outside the monastery, ''The Seven Storey Mountain'' having sold over 150,000 copies. It is on ''[[National Review]]''{{-'}}s list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the twentieth century.<ref>[http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/215718/non-fiction-100 The 100 best non-fiction books of the century] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215165349/http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/215718/non-fiction-100|date=February 15, 2015}}, [[National Review]]</ref>

In this particularly prolific period of his life, Merton is believed to have been suffering from [[loneliness]] and [[Psychological stress|stress]]. One incident indicative of this is his drive with the monastery's jeep, acting in a possibly [[mania|manic]] state, during which he almost caused a head-on collision.<ref>Waldron, Robert G. (2014). ''The Wounded Heart of Thomas Merton''. [[Paulist Press]]. p. 56. {{ISBN|978-0809146840}}.</ref>

In 1953 he published a journal of monastery life titled ''The Sign of Jonas''. Merton became well known for his dialogues with other faiths and his non-violent stand during the [[race riot]]s and [[Vietnam War]] of the 1960s. By this time, he had adopted a broadly human viewpoint, concerned about issues like peace, racial tolerance, and social equality. In a letter to Nicaraguan liberation theologian [[Ernesto Cardenal]] (who had entered Gethsemani but left in 1959 to study theology in Mexico), Merton wrote: "The world is full of great criminals with enormous power, and they are in a death struggle with each other. It is a huge gang battle, using well-meaning lawyers and policemen and clergymen as their front, controlling papers, means of communication, and enrolling everybody in their armies."<ref>Letter, November 17, 1962, quoted in [[Monica Furlong]]'s ''Merton: a Biography'' p. 263.</ref> He developed a personal radicalism which was political but not overtly sympathetic to Marxism, even though his Cisterican critic [[Louis Lekai]] identified Merton's "adherence to Marxian slogans."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lekai |first=Louis |date=1978 |title=Thomas Merton - the Historian? |journal=Cistercian Studies |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=384–386 |quote=he had recourse to worn-out clichés (borrowed mostly from Marx), or quoted traditionally accepted views without attempting to look more deeply into the subject.}}</ref> Merton was above all devoted to non-violence. He regarded his viewpoint as based on "simplicity" and expressed it as a Christian sensibility. His ''New Seeds of Contemplation'' was published in 1961.

Merton finally achieved the solitude he had long desired while living in a [[Hermitage (religious retreat)|hermitage]] on the monastery grounds in 1965. Over the years he had occasional battles with some of his [[abbot]]s about not being allowed out of the monastery despite his international reputation and voluminous correspondence with many well-known figures of the day.

At the end of 1968, the new abbot, Flavian Burns, allowed him the freedom to undertake a tour of Asia, during which he met the [[Tenzin Gyatso|Dalai Lama]] in India on three occasions, and also the [[Tibetan Buddhist]] [[Dzogchen]] master [[Chatral Rinpoche]], followed by a solitary retreat near [[Darjeeling]], India. In Darjeeling, he befriended [[Tsewang Yishey Pemba]], a prominent member of the Tibetan community.<ref>{{cite book |last= Merton |first= Thomas |title= The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton |publisher= [[New Directions Publishing|New Directions]] |date= February 1975 |isbn= 0-8112-0570-3 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_0811205703 }}</ref> Then, in what was to be his final letter, he noted, "In my contacts with these new friends, I also feel a consolation in my own faith in Christ and in his dwelling presence. I hope and believe he may be present in the hearts of all of us."<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Religion: Mystic's Last Journey |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904007,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214065625/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904007,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 14, 2008 |date=August 6, 1973 |magazine=[[TIME]] | access-date=May 25, 2010}}</ref>

Merton's role as a writer is explored in novelist [[Mary Gordon (writer)|Mary Gordon]]'s ''On Merton'' (2019).<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.shambhala.com/thomas-merton.html | title=On Merton | publisher=[[Shambhala Publications]] | author=Gordon, Mary | year=2019 | isbn=978-1-6118-0337-2 | access-date=February 9, 2019 | archive-date=August 8, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808053757/https://www.shambhala.com/thomas-merton.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>