The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Calí, Grace

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Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1959, 1995

Volume: 7 item(s); 7 pg(s)

Scope and Content

Biography

During the time of Merton's correspondence with Paul Tillich, Grace Calí Leonard was Tillich's secretary and editorial assistant at Harvard University. Now going by her maiden name of Calí in her later roles as journalist and freelance writer, her book entitled Paul Tillich, First Hand: A Memoir of the Harvard Years was published in 1996, which includes a chapter on Merton and Tillich.

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

See also published letters from Merton to Calí (listed under former name "Mrs. Leonard") in Witness to Freedom, pp. 300-302.

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
 1959/06/20 TLS[x]from MertonThank you for your kind letter telling me that Dr Tillich had read and enjoyed <u>Prometheus</u>.Yes asks Tillich's thoughts on sacred art for Merton's <i>Art and Worship</i> book / things that different denominations of Christians have in common / asks Calí for recommended books by or about Albert Schweitzer
 1959/06/23 TLS[x]to MertonI can't tell you how much I appreciated your very kind letter. Dr. Tillich would, of course, want  Paul Tillich sends books and the lecture "Art and Ultimate Reality" / Calí sends Albert Schweitzer's <i>Out of My Life and Thought</i> - Tillich recommends Schweitzer's <i>The Quest of the Historical Jesus</i> / Calí friend interested in solitary life but Calí questions whether vowed religious life is a holier existence
 1959/07/07 TL[x]from MertonThe two booksof [sic] Dr Tillich arrived yesterday morning with the autobiography of AlbertYes Merton agrees with Tillich's view of sacred art - need to focus on expressionism rather than realism / Merton responds to Calí's questioning of the monastic life and offers that it cannot be an escape from the "world" but an "acceptance of the highest responsibility and the most delicate and difficult freedom"
 1995/04/10 TLSto Center from Calí, GraceMay I identify myself as the "Mrs. Leonard" listed on pages 300-302 of the latest edition of Thomas  identifies herself as the "Mrs. Leonard" in <i>Witness to Freedom</i> / Calí's current pursuits and plans to write book about Tillich and to include Merton's letters to her
 1995/04/20 TL[x]from Center to Calí, GraceI have received your letter about your book, tentatively titled <u>Paul Tillich - The Human Side</u>  asking for copies of letters to and from Merton
 1995/04/29 TLSto Center from Calí, GraceThank you so much for your prompt response to my letter about permission to use Thomas Merton's  sending copies of the exchange of letters / first letter from Calí to Merton is missing
 1995/05/03 TL[x]from Center to Calí, GraceI have received the copies of Thomas Merton's two letters to you and of the one from you to him.   
        

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