The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Butorovich, Suzanne, 1950-

Click here to exit print-formated view.

Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1967-1968, 1982

Volume: 24 item(s); 45 pg(s)

Scope and Content

Biography

Suzanne Butorovich was a high school student from Campbell, California. This is one of the longest know series of correspondence he had with a young person. Merton had dinner with her and her family while visiting California on October 3, 1968.

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

See Merton's letters to Butorovich in The Road to Joy, pp. 308-314.

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
 1967/06/15 TALSto MertonSorry for the first mistake but I'm a pretty rotten typist but my penmanship is worst so good luck!  quotes Benjamin Franklin on politics and religion / asks Merton about his thoughts on drugs and the hippy movement / Bob Dylan / asks Merton for submissions to her underground newspaper, <u>Clique Courier</u> / her backstage passes to the Monterey International Pop Music Festival / Paul McCartney and the Beatles
 1967/06/22 (#01)TL[c]from MertonI don't know if your letter was a disaster: but anyway, if it was, it was a nice disaster.Yes Merton's enjoyment of underground movements and publications - sending poem/prose "mosaic" for her newspaper (to later come out in one of his books) - thinks poems sounds like Bob Dylan (likes "Obviously Five Believers") / Merton owns Beatles "Revolver" (likes "Taxman") / the Grateful Dead / LSD / Merton as "hippy monk"
 1967/06/22 (#02)TLS[x]from MertonI don't know if your letter was a disaster: but anyway, if it was, it was a nice disaster.Yes Merton's enjoyment of underground movements and publications - sending poem/prose "mosaic" for her newspaper (to later come out in one of his books) - thinks poems sounds like Bob Dylan (likes "Obviously Five Believers") / Merton owns Beatles "Revolver" (likes "Taxman") / the Grateful Dead / LSD / Merton as "hippy monk"
 1967/07/03 TALSto MertonGuess what! You got a new name you didn't need!!!! HELLO!! This is the Disaster Kid from the  "letter to a hippy hermit" / Monterey Pop Festival with grandma / D. T. Suzuki / Butorovich recommends Kahlil Gibran, O. Henry, J.R.R. Tolkien and John Lennon to Merton / asks what he would add or leave out of <i>Seven Storey Mountain</i> / Pablo Picasso / types lyrics - Beatles songs from "Sgt. Pepper" / Ravi Shankar
 1967/07/18 (#01)TL[c]from MertonI refuse to call anybody Susie. (I met a girl in a bar in London who was called Boosie Susie thirtyYes Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" / Merton is familiar with the authors she suggested / recommends some Zen books by Suzuki / from <i>Seven Storey Mountain</i> he'd "cut out a lot of the sermons" and "the sales pitch for Catholic schools" / paradox of organizing the underground press / Ravi Shankar and Indian music
 1967/07/18 (#02)TLS[x]from MertonI refuse to call anybody Susie. (I met a girl in a bar in London who was called Boosie Susie thirtyYes Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" / Merton is familiar with the authors she suggested / recommends some Zen books by Suzuki / from <i>Seven Storey Mountain</i> he'd "cut out a lot of the sermons" and "the sales pitch for Catholic schools" / paradox of organizing the underground press / Ravi Shankar and Indian music
 1967/08/28 HLSto MertonI send this quick. I know you would probably not hear so I am writing. I have a feeling that  [attaches newspaper article about the death of Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles] worries that the Beatles will either "break up or tighten up" - distressed about Ringo Starr naming his baby Jason / asks for a Mass for Brian Epstein / seeing Ravi Shankar in Los Angeles
 1967/08/31 (#01)TL[c]from MertonThe certified letter came today and by the time you get this you will have got back the little pinkYes Brian Epstein / hippie culture in California
 1967/08/31 (#02)TLS[x]from MertonThe certified letter came today and by the time you get this you will have got back the little pinkYes Brian Epstein / hippie culture in California
 1967/09/06 TALSto MertonHullo!! Well, here I am finally home and back in (YIK!!!) school But never fear!!! [sic]  attempts to obtain Ravi Shankar's address / Notre Dame High School - suggestions to play recordings of Merton in a class and descriptions of the nuns there / thoughts about where to go to college / asks if Merton will write a script for a Beatles movie / "Peanuts" comic strip / detailed description of the workings of a tape recorder
 1967/10/07 (#01)TL[c]from MertonI am thinking about you: are your ears burning? My house in the woods all full of San FranciscoYes life in the hermitage / Merton likes Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe, 13th Floor Elevators and Grateful Dead, but not Moby Grape / Japanese Zen people and Merton / Merton fixing up for publication his book <i>Journal of My Escape from the Nazi's</i> / <i>Cables to the Ace</i> / LSD and Timothy Leary's jail sentence
 1967/10/07 (#02)TLS[x]from MertonI am thinking about you: are your ears burning? My house in the woods all full of San FranciscoYes life in the hermitage / Merton likes Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe, 13th Floor Elevators and Grateful Dead, but not Moby Grape / Japanese Zen people and Merton / Merton fixing up for publication his book <i>Journal of My Escape from the Nazi's</i> / <i>Cables to the Ace</i> / LSD and Timothy Leary's jail sentence
 1967/11/09 TALSto MertonThis is going to be a fast letter. Hello! I am getting very bored with life and, well, ...  class retreat to San Juan Bautista / asking Merton's opinion about going her going to England for college and the requirements / Ravi Shankar spending the semester at Columbia University / asking Merton for a tape on Zen Buddhism / The Beatles / purchased Suzuki book / picture of Merton with hat on <i>Mystics and Zen Masters</i>
 1967/12/09 (#01)TL[c]from MertonSorry for the long delay. I've been very busy. Just had a wonderful time with fifteen cloisteredYes meeting with fifteen cloistered nuns at Gethsemani / encourages Butorovich to go to school in England, but mentions the tough matriculation / Merton does not know whether he can "put Zen on tape" for her and the nuns
 1967/12/09 (#02)TALS[x]from MertonSorry for the long delay. I've been very busy. Just had a wonderful time with fifteen cloisteredYes meeting with fifteen cloistered nuns at Gethsemani / encourages Butorovich to go to school in England, but mentions the tough matriculation (handwritten unpublished note states that his information "is probably completely <u>obsolete</u>") / Merton does not know whether he can "put Zen on tape" for her and the nuns
 1967/12/25? HLSto MertonThis is a surprise "Crimble" box!! This is sent with love from me and my "little sister" Linda  [verso: Butorovich's drawing of a crimble tree] sends a "Crimble box" (also, Chrimble - word coined by John Lennon for Christmas) of presents from her and Linda Macmillan
 1968/02/11 (#01)TL[c]from MertonWhat did you think? That I thought the Crimble box was a bomb and jumped in the lake with it?Yes Butorovich's give makes Merton "the largest collector of Beatle relics in Kentucky" / the Beatles on TV maybe "the ultimate triumph of Zen" / sending mimeo of <i>Journal of My Escape from the Nazis</i> / Merton gives directions for cooking kasha
 1968/02/11 (#02)TLS[x]from MertonWhat did you think? That I thought the Crimble box was a bomb and jumped in the lake with it?Yes Butorovich's give makes Merton "the largest collector of Beatle relics in Kentucky" / the Beatles on TV maybe "the ultimate triumph of Zen" / sending mimeo of <i>Journal of My Escape from the Nazis</i> / Merton gives directions for cooking kasha
 1968/05/20 HPCS[x]from MertonDo you know I was in Cal. and tried to call you from the S.F. airport? But I guess I got the wrong  [photocopy of postcard (from Butorovich?) with typed "translation" of Merton's script]
 1968/05/no HPCS[x]from MertonI read your long letter--with insertions from Cris, etc., etc.-in Dallas airport. Now I'm at Memphis  [photocopy of postcard (from Butorovich?) with typed "translation" of Merton's script, she adds that the others mentioned in the letter were Cris Cadena, Butorovich's school friend who joined Merton and Butorovich's family for dinner when Merton was in California, and Mary Lou Berryessa, another school friend of Butorovich]
 1968/06/04 (#01)TL[c]from MertonDon't mind the letterhead, this is just the secret headquarters of my drug pushing outfit. (aspirinsYes [letterhead: "Community Council of San Mateo County" "Action Study on Community Health Services"] sending second issue of <u>Monks Pond</u> / asks Butorovich for material from her underground paper
 1968/09/26 TALS[x]from MertonYour letter(s) followed me to Alaska and got here just in time. I have not run out on the monastery  [written from Anchorage, Alaska]
 1968/11/06? HPCS[x]from MertonIndia has turned out to be very groovy indeed. The meeting in Calcutta was not very good but as  [photocopy of postcard (from Butorovich?) with typed "translation" of Merton's script, she adds that the others mentioned in the letter were Cris Cadena, Butorovich's school friend who joined Merton and Butorovich's family for dinner when Merton was in California, and Mary Lou Berryessa, another school friend of Butorovich]
 1982/09/06 TALS from Hickey, Regis / to Br. Patrick HartHere are duplicated copies of six letters, apparently from Father Louis (Thomas) Merton, that have  copies of Butorovich's letters given to a graduate of Maur Hill Prep in Atchison Kansas by a woman at Merton's funeral [Butorovich?]
        

    The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University | 2001 Newburg Rd, Louisville KY, 40205 | 502-272-8187

    Copyright © The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University. All rights reserved.