The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Rice, Edward, 1918-2001

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Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1940-1967

Volume: 91 item(s); 113 pg(s)

Scope and Content

Biography

Edward Rice was one of Merton's friends from Columbia University that also contributed to the university's satirical magazine The Jester. He was one of the only Catholics in Merton's circle (before the conversion of Lax and others), and he was chosen as Merton's godfather for Merton's baptism in 1938. Ed Rice became a freelance journalist and photographer. He founded the ecumenical and progressive Catholic magazine Jubilee, to which Merton was a contributor. As a journalist, he traveled throughout the world, sometimes getting into danger, including a threat of disembowelment by Bedouins in Jordan. (Sources: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, edited by William Shannon, Christine Bochen, and Patrick O'Connell, pp. 384-385; and Cummings, Mary. "Edward Rice '40: Traveling on Unbeaten Paths." Columbia College Today. May 2001. Online version. Accessed 22 Feb. 2006. ‹http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/may01/may01_feature_rice.html›.)

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

See also Cold War Letters #33 and other letters from Merton to Rice published in The Road to Joy, pp. 283-293; see also the "Kazan, Basil". "Stone, Naomi Burton", and "Lax, Robert" files.

Other Finding Aids

If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
   

Series List

This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.

Container List

SeriesDateTypeTo/FromFirst LinesPubFull TextNotes
 1940/04/no TLS[x]from Mertonsome Cuba, baby, some Cuba. Listen, I was in Havana a couple days and you never seen such a city.   
 1940/12/03 other[x]from Merton   [copy of envelope that Merton used to send Rice 4 poems (most currently unpublished) - see Section E.2 for copies of the poems: "The Minotaur's Picnic", "Watergap", "City's Spring" and "Lycidas"]
 1941/02/24 TLS[x]from MertonYour story of how you bought finegans wake reminds me of the time lax went into the same kind  [addressed "Rous", like 1941/02/24 letter]
 1941/no/no? TLS[x]from MertonI have just sat in my chalet in the snow and corrected seventeen million english exams and only six  [labeled Rice at Columbia, but mentions Rice in letter - addressed "Rous"]
 1950/06/23 TALSto MertonLax just passed on a letter from you. I was going to write you about the magazine, but I see that   
 1957/02/28 TL[c]from MertonI got permission to write to you because perhaps you can put me in touch directly or indirectlyYes  
 1959/02/09 TLSto MertonHope this reaches you before the Iron Curtain falls on Wednesday. Yes, by all means, articles   
 1959/02/28 TLS[x]from MertonMan I go to sharpen up this typewriter and write some time in a month a profound article   
 1959/05/09 TLS[x]from MertonThat beat generation man Lax he was down here o yes manmanman. Well and he brought back to you,  [copied from Sub-Section H.7, Hart Working Files] sent "Boris Pasternak and the People with Watch Chains" / sending article on Mount Athos / Gethsemani cheese / Art and Worship - Robert Giroux and Farrar, Straus / James Laughlin and the desert fathers book (Wisdom of the Desert) / Robert Lax as beat and hermit
 1959/05/28 TLSto MertonYes, we received Pasternak (and the insert) and Mt Athos. Many thanks for both. You have no idea   
 1959/10/26 TALSto MertonI've read your books about the human spirit and I think they're peachy. My friend Hubert Larks does   
 1960/01/05 TALto MertonYes, Eloise & I will come, will leave Jan 29 (Sunday) & arrive, I suppose, Monday night   
 1960/03/31 TALfrom MertonI write to you as to Mr Jubilee Ikon. Dear Mister Ikon (Jubilee). I have been imprisoned   
 1960/04/08 TALSto MertonBy separate mail we sent you an annunciation ikon, on paper, just like Uncle Ivan used to make.   
 1960/06/16 TALSto MertonListen , Jazzbo, you blow <u>across</u> the pipes, not into them. Never mind Swanee River.   
 1960/06/20 TLS[x]from MertonWell I wish to declare that the Huge Book printed on ghost skins by Nestles Chocolate Inc, Vevey   
 1960/06/27 TLS[x]from MertonThe censors have passed Peter Damian and Herkleitos both. So they are ok, no corrections.   
 1960/08/25 TLto MertonLaundry man say, run tzu, run three, run all nineteen pages of fortune cookie recipie.   
 1960/08/30 TLto MertonBy all means, an article on the monkey man (yes, my sister <u>did</u> marry one &amp; the whole   
 1960/08/no? TLSto Mertonsend quickly dolci. send quickly heraklitos. i will send dolci a five dollar prize even as you   
 1960/11/12 TLS[x]from MertonWell, I now have the final supreme decision about the Teilhard de Chardin article. It is that this   
 1961/01/10 TLS[x]from MertonFine letter. I will be craning for the sails of the mercedes Jan 30 next day big birthday am five   
 1961/02/13 TLSto MertonSome more clippings for background for the art book. The one on Janis will tell you something   
 1961/09/03 TL[c]from MertonThe letter will serve as an introduction for the Rt Rev. Archimandrite Basil Kazan. ProvidentiallyYes  
 1961/10/08 TLSto MertonHah, you thought I'd never write. No the Iron Curtain hasn't been holding up my letters,   
 1961/10/13 TLS[x]from MertonReceived yesterday yours of 8th. If the image woman was here she has been and gone without   
 1961/11/02 TLSto MertonSo you hid from the whiskey image woman. Too bad. She had pockets full of Old Crow, Old Grandad,   
 1961/11/15 TLfrom MertonLetters from Jim Forest at the CW have given me a pretty confused picture of what has been going on   
 1961/11/22 TLSto MertonYes, do the article on God and the H Bomb. Perhaps rather than a review it could be a take-off   
 1961/11/30 TLSto MertonWhatever happed to J.P. Morgan's midget? Have you heard about Enos, first American spaceman around   
 1962/01/04 TLSto MertonWent into the fallout shelter for Christmas &amp; just came out. Why didn't they drop the bomb?   
 1962/01/08 TLS[x]from MertonWhat you need is Trappish fallup bisquix, with built in bourbon flavor and goats hair packages   
 1962/01/23 TALSto MertonReceiving the Marissa M. material. Not yet decided about running it since H &amp; H turned over   
 1962/02/10 (#01)TALS[x]from MertonThe article of Fr Michael Azkoul is quite good, and it touches on the main theme of easternYes [handwritten annotations on xerox by William Shannon]
 1962/02/10 (#02)transcriptfrom MertonThe article of Fr. M.A. is quite good, and it touches on the main theme of eastern ChristianYes [Cold War Letters #33 - transcript from bound set]
 1962/03/21 TALSto MertonEnclosed are galleys of your article. Sounds like the best you've done on the subject.   
 1962/03/22 TLSto MertonI sent you galleys of the article yesterday, but I see not that the Catholic Worker has already run   
 1962/03/27 TLSto MertonOK, write new lead for the article. The Worker crowd is sort of irresponsible at time and I think   
 1962/04/26 TLSto MertonGlad you sent in the Stein Collage. I like it &amp; think its good, although you (down there) don't   
 1962/05/15 TLSto MertonI've got cold feet about the fall-out collage (but a warm heart, if that means anything).   
 1962/07/05 HPCSto MertonRavenna, city of my dreams [-] Ed  [verso: color photograph of part of one of the mosaics from San Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy, depicting an imperial procession from the reign of Justinian]
 1962/09/06 TLto MertonYou'd better take off Thataway. (Or I'd better.) Due to a complete misunderstanding of your   
 1962/09/10 TLS[x]from MertonNever mind. Don't give it a thought, Foertg it I mean forget it. Pass it off with a wave   
 1963/08/21 TLSto MertonEnclosed the LeClerq piece. Sorry it didn't work out, since I had some beautiful pictures of him.   
 1963/10/26 TL[c]from MertonLong time ago I said I was going to do an article on the Shakers. Here it is . Under separateYes  
 1963/no/no? TLSto Mertonthe abbot of erlach (h gold's prayergeschaft) of whom was taken some pictures last spring   
 1964/08/03 TAL[c]from MertonHold everything. Stop press. Jangle jangle. terrible mistake. That piece on Gandhi was,Yes  
 1964/09/03 TAL[c]from MertonI have not ceased to be sorry for my blunder about the Gandhi article. And I suppose New DirectionsYes  
 1964/10/02 TLSto Mertonhave spent the summer thinking about the nature of man. Man is the only animal that wears clothes   
 1965/07/26 TL[c]from MertonFirst, thanks for sending the book on Zen Monasticism back when. Holy Ghost and angels must have   
 1965/08/12 TAL[c]from MertonThanks for your letter. I am appalled by the things that seem to be happening around there.Yes  
 1965/09/03 TLS[x]from MertonOk October. I am terribly sorry about your family trouble. I suppose that is one of the most  [copied from Sub-Section H.7, Accession 2, Hart Working Files]
 1965/12/14 TLSto MertonEnclosed a letter someone wanted forwarded to you. (Not really sure of your address at the moment   
 1966/01/05 TLSto Mertonyour introductions just arrived this morning. I think it's excellent--just what I wanted.   
 1966/01/18 TALSto Mertonthat was a very pleasant weekend. I feel remiss about not having come down more often,   
 1966/01/27 TL[c]from MertonGot your letter yesterday at end of retreat preached by guess who Bishop Sheen. I am exemptYes  
 1966/02/04 (#01)TLSto MertonEnclosed a Xerox of the article about you in our March issue. I hope it is sufficiently vague.   
 1966/02/04 (#02)TAL[c]from MertonListen man, about the anguish. There are things you can intelligently do about it. Not easy,Yes [no year listed - seemingly mislabeled 1967/02/04 in the published letters]
 1966/03/16 TL[c]from MertonThanks for your letter from Iraq. The trip sounds interesting. I wonder if you are going to beYes  
 1966/03/no HLSto Mertonhave been out of the states for three weeks -- in Lebanon, Turkey &amp; Jordan doing some stories   
 1966/07/14 TLSto Mertonif Cross Currents doesn't take the Buddhist article, we will. We have a nice piece by Nhat Hanh   
 1966/07/20 TL[c]from MertonThanks letter. I will tell you fast if Cross Currents rejects article, or you might call CunneenYes  
 1966/08/26 TLSto Mertonchecked Cunneen about the Buddhist article but he tells me he has just written you that it will be   
 1966/08/29 TL[c]from MertonOther day when I wrote that note I mailed it just before I picked up your envelope with the DylanYes  
 1966/12/05 TLSto MertonBy separate mail I am sending you a collection of photographs--some of yourself (the shots I took   
 1966/12/09 TALS[x]from MertonThanks for your letter of the 5th which I got today. And thanks for sending the pix. I will beYes  
 1967/01/13 TL[c]from MertonGlad the introduction is ok. Since you say there is no wild rush, I will go over it and tryYes  
 1967/01/16 (#01)TLSto Mertongot your compassionate note. Hope the crowd comes up with some ideas. Was in a deep depression   
 1967/01/16 (#02)other[x] DEATH OF A HOLY TERROR [-] On March 11, 1966, at one-thirty in the afternoon, Jean Bourgoint,  [article by Denise Van Moppès on Jean Bourgoint and the novel loosely based on his life]
 1967/01/16 (#03)other[x] LETTRE AUX AMIS ET COOPERATEURS [-] Merci d'abord à chacun de tous ceux auxquels   
 1967/01/20 TLSto MertonI am reluctantly sending back the Camus piece because it is too long. At a rough guess it is about   
 1967/01/30 TL[c]from MertonFirst, thanks for the book on Hinduism. I haven't touched it yet but will let you know moreYes  
 1967/02/01 (#01)TLSto Mertonenclosed another letter &amp; clipping about Bourgoint. No hurry about doing the article,   
 1967/02/01 (#02)otherto MertonDEMAIN, SALLE DROUOT [-] LA FIN DES ENFANTS TERRIBLE [-] par le P.-P. Michel RIQUET   
 1967/02/02 TLSto MertonI wonder if you could send me a copy of the Camus piece before Lent closes in. I have my own   
 1967/02/06 TL[c]from MertonHere are two copies of the Camus article. On one of them I have shown how it could be cut without   
 1967/02/25 TLSto MertonReceived both the revised version of the article on monastic renewal and the two copies of the Camus   
 1967/03/18 TL[c]from MertonHere is the article on Frere Pascal. I hope you have some good pictures, for it needs illustration.   
 1967/04/13 TLSto MertonI really should have written you immediately about the Bourgoint article. It's exceptionally good   
 1967/04/15 TL[c]from MertonThanks for your letter: I was glad to get it. I didn't know if you were in Alaska or what.   
 1967/07/07 (#01)TALSto MertonThought it was time to give you the news about Jubilee. Herder and Herder is in the midst of buying   
 1967/07/07 (#02)TL[c]from MertonThanks for the latest Jubilee. The Bro Pascal article came out nicely with the Cocteau drawings.Yes  
 1967/07/12 TLSto MertonGot your letter of the seventh. Will send out the dozen June copies. I do have the Journal of My   
 1967/07/18 TL[c]from MertonThe Journalof [sic] my Escape has not got here yet, but I hope it will arrive safely. Expect alsoYes  
 1967/07/20 TLSto Mertonsent off "Journal of My Escape" to you this morning. Let me know if it arrives. After this could   
 1967/07/31? TL[c]from MertonThanks for yours of the 20 and for the Journal of my Escape which is here and looks pretty fairYes  
 1967/08/04 TLSto MertonGlad the "Journal" arrives safely. Hadn't realized until after I mailed it that you wanted a Xerox   
 1967/08/08 TL[c]from MertonThanks for the latest: I am really glad you are finally off the Herder meathook. Sorry aboutYes  
 undated/no/no HNto MertonED RICE [-] IS ALIVE [-] AND [-] WELL IN [-] HAVANA [-] CUBA   
 undated/no/no other NEW &amp; REVISED COPY---EDWARD RICE BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE   
        

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