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Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a optician by trade in Lexington, Kentucky, but was an avid photographer who would become influential in the art photography world for his haunting and surreal images. He first met Merton in January of 1967 on a trip from Lexington with poet Jonathan Williams and Guy Davenport (see Merton's journal entry from January 18, 1967). Meatyard took some photographs of Merton playing bongos, standing with a staff in a corn field, in his hermitage, in his habit but with a baseball cap, etc. In some of the last years of his life before dieing of cancer, he collaborating with another friend of Merton's, Kentucky author Wendell Berry. Meatyard's photographs are part of the collections at the Smithsonian, the Museum of Modern Art, and the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.
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.
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"
| # | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| | y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
| 1. |
1967/04/25 |
HLS[x] to Laughlin, James |
Tom Merton asked me to send these prints to you. They are his three favorites of the recent pictures |
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«detailed view» |
| 2. |
1967/05/26 |
TL[x] from Laughlin, James |
Thank you so much for letting me see the pictures which you took of Father Merton. |
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rejection of photos for cover of Selected Poems
«detailed view» |
| 3. |
1967/08/12 |
HLS from Merton |
Returned just this week from 3½ wks vacation and travel through the East and North. |
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«detailed view» |
| 4. |
1967/08/15 |
TL[c] from Merton |
It was goodto [sic] get your letter, to know you had had a good vacation, that the new store was |
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«detailed view» |
| 5. |
1967/no/no? |
HLS to Merton |
Thanks so much for time last, most edifying. We were at Guys Saturday and he is still somewhat |
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«detailed view» |
| 6. |
1968/06/17 |
HLS to Merton |
Thanks for nice issue of Monks Pond - looks real great! Assume that you have been working mightily. |
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«detailed view» |
| 7. |
1968/06/23 |
TL[c] from Merton |
I've been one very busy and overvisited monk lately and I must admit I totally forgot about |
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«detailed view» |
| 8. |
1972/07/07 |
HLS[x] to Center from Meatyard, Madelyn |
Thank you for your kind letter of June 14. I am sorry it has taken me so long to reply. |
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«detailed view» |
| 9. |
1972/08/25 |
TL[x] from Center to Meatyard, Madelyn |
Thank you for your consent for the use of Gene's excellent Merton photographs. We will make every |
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«detailed view» |
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