| Date | Author | Title | Source | Quotation by Merton |
| 1948/03/28 | Wilhelm Schamoni | Face of the Saints |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 194
| In the library I lookesd at that marvelous book The Faces of the Saints [by Wilhelm Schamoni, London, 1948], pictures as near as possible genuine portraits "” contemporary "” of saints. The Patristic one from mosaics were some of the most beautiful. St. Catherine of Siena, too, and another I have forgotten. More modern ones"”some of the death-masks frighten me. |
| 1948/04/25 | Marcel Aubert | Architecture cistercienne en France |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 199
| The two volumes of Marcel Aubert on Cistercian architecture in France finally arrived. Fr. Anselme Dimier got them for us, and it is a wonderful book. |
| 1948/05/22 | Marcel Aubert | Architecture cistercienne en France |
Jnl 2 ('41-'52) p. 206
| I am reading the Aubert book on Cistercian Architecture, and it is fine. I think of those monasteries. I am trying to figure out whether or not a village church Father and I looked at near Lexos was Beaulieu abbey (Tarn et Garonne). |
| 1955/10/24 | Denis Grivot | Autun |
Ltrs: Hammer p. 19
| How did you like Zodiaque and the book on Autun? The monks who did those books are thinking of publishing some of theri work in this country. Do you think Pantheon, for instance, would be intersterd in the Autun volume? |
| 1955/12/17 | Adolph Konrad Fiedler | Vom Wesen der Kunst |
Ltrs: Hammer p. 27
| And now, thank you so much for the Fiedler. It is intensely interesting and thougth provoking. As I had suspected, the arguments I tentavely put forth in my last letter had little realy to di with Fiedler whom I see to be just as "anti-academic" as I am. However, I do not think I have mastered his thougth well enough to discuss it, and as you say it would be far more fruitful simply to live in the light of some concrete embodiment of his doctrine put into effect. |
| 1956/02/05 | Bernard Craplet | Auvergne Roman |
Ltrs: Hammer p. 29
| The Benedictines, whose magazines I gave you, have come out with a wonderful volume on Romanesque Art in Auvergne - "L'Auvergne Roman." You can get it from La Pierre qui Vire if you are interested. |
| 1958/03/19 | Edward Steichen | family of man : the greatest photographic exhibition of all time : 503 pictures from 68 countries / created by Edward Steichen for the Museum of Modern Art |
Jnl 3 ('52-'60) p. 182-83
| Marvellous books for a few pennies-including The Family of Man for 50 cents. All those fabulous pictures. And again, no refinements and no explanations are necessary! How scandalized some men would be if I said that the whole book is to me a picture of Christ and yet that is the Truth. There, there is Christ in my own Kind, my own Kind-"Kind" which means "likeness" and which meanlove" and which means "child." Mankind |
| 1961/06/10 | William G. Congdon | In My Disk of Gold: Itinary to Christ by William Congdon |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 125
| Wrote a couple of pages for Bill Congdon's book the other day. He deserves a statement. He needed the transparency of Christ Walking on the Waters and I hated to part with it. It is really beautiful. A delight. |
| 1961/07/27 | Pieter Meer de Walcheren, van der | Rencontres: Leon Bloy, Raïssa Maritain, Christine et Pieterke |
Jnl 4 ('60-'63) p. 145
| Lovely poem on Chagall by Raissa Maritain in P. Van der Meer's Rencontres. Like to translate it in Jubilee with a note on her and perhaps some Chagall picture. |
| 1962/02/04 | Erich Widder | Glanz des Ewigen: Sakrale Kunst in Österreich |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 32
| I was happy to hear from you again and have very much enjoyed the beautiful book of Austrian churches, Glanz des Ewigen. Like you, I feel many pangs of nostalgia over the wonderful unappreciated grace of the civilization that is inexorably perishing all around us. Austria has been such a wonderful rich and living source of this European Christian culture. Mozart represents for me all the purest and best in the Austrian and Christian genius, and those unabashed excesses of baroque attempt to keep up with his inexhaustible imagination. They do not of course succeed, but they have their charm and their boldness. I admire especially the daring of baroque that was not afraid to risk terrible lapses of taste, and yet managed almost always to come off with some marvels of ingenuity and playfulness. In former days I found it hard to take seriously but now I think nevertheless its significance grows on me. I suppose it is terribly out of fashion. As for the older Austrian churches, especially the earliest of all, they are simply enchanting. So your gift has given me great pleasure and made me secretly homesick for the Europe I shall never see again "¦ |
| 1963/02/12 | Raïssa Maritain | Chagall: Ou l'orage enchantre |
Ltrs: CforT p. 36
| "¦ Thanks especially for Chagall. This is a wonderful book to have. It is a whole world in itself, full of joy and innocence, a delight and a paradise. I was so happy to find an earlier version of Le Lac opposite a portrait of Raissa. I see it is after all part of the world she saw in Chagall, but I said "Dufy" because it looked like that to me at the time. In any case this is one of the most eloquent of her books, and one of which one cannot grow tired. |
| 1964/02/02 | Maurice Merleau-Ponty | Sens et non-sens |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 69-70
| One of the worst things I have ever done-the absurd enterprise of writing that text for the Vatican Pavilion. Nothing whatever to do with a movie. I must learn to refuse these baits. Yet how marvelous to really and competently do a movie! Merleau-Ponty's essay on the films-have important implications for the new liturgy. Liturgy on "comportement" [behavior]! Translating language of movies into Liturgy. "(La liturgie) s'addresse à notre pouvoir de dechiffrer tacitement le monde ou les hommes et de coexister avec eux." ["Liturgy addresses itself to our power to decipher tacitly the world or men and coexist with them," Sens et non sens, p. 103.] This is either so right or so utterly wrong as to be blasphemous. But in that cas"¦? Liturgy is to be experienced, and it is a film. Not past thought or willed. Experienced by the presentation of conducts. "Non pas"¦chaque conscience et les autres, mais la conscience jetee dans le monde, soumise au regard des autres et apprenant d'eux ce qu'elle est" ["Not"¦each conscience and the other consciences, but the conscience thrown into the world, submitted to the view of others and learning from others what it is"] (Sens et non sens, pp. 104-105). This needs interpretation (danger of the Fascist application, or the Soviet application of it!) but in the right sense it is "liturgy." Or is it? "Engagement de la conscience dans un corps." ["The engagement of a conscience in a body."] |
| 1964/08/09 | Raïssa Maritain | Chagall: Ou l'orage enchantre |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 134
| Raïssa Maritain in her book on [Marc] Chagall [Chagall: Où l'orage enchante, 1948] speaks of the light of New York (the best for seeing Chagall's paintings). I agree: I was struck by that light above all in June. So much clearer, braver, more uncompromising than Louisville: a vague town |
| 1965/05/13 | Mai-Mai Sze | Tao of Painting |
Ltrs: Hammer p. 217
| I have very much enjoyed the Tao of Painting [note 191: Mai-mai Sze, The Tao of Painting, 2nd ed. (New York: Pantheon, 1963), which Merton borrowed on his June 6 visit.], which I will send back soon. Duveen is priceless. But I am afraid it has almost fallen apart. Could I borrow your copy of Eric Gill on Clothes? [note 192: Erik Gill, Clothes: An Essay upon the Nature and Significance of the Natural and Artificial Integuments Worn by Men and Women (London: J.Cape, 1931). For Merton's negative comments on this work see his journal entry for Oktober 13, 1965.] Carolyn, I have here a copy of Giles "Confucianism and its rivals" which you sent me. I have never been clear if this was a loan or an extra that you wanted to get rid of. Could you please let me know? |
| 1965/06/06 | Mai-Mai Sze | Tao of Painting |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 253
| On Friday I went to Lexington for some examinations at the clinic (Dr. Fortune) and was supposed to return that afternoon but stayed overnight in the hospital for more tests yesterday morning. What with enemas, proctoscopes, barium enemas, etc. I had a miserable time. When I began these examinations ten or fifteen years ago they were unpleasant but bearable. Since then, my insides have become so sensitive that they are a real torment. However, there is no cancer, there are no ulcers, just a great deal of inflammation and sensitivity, etc. The results of all the tests are not yet in. However, on Friday I had lunch with the Hammers, and borrowed from them the Tao of Painting [by Mai Mai Sze, 1963] to take to the hospital. I had some very enjoyable moments reading it. A very exciting first chapter. Also read [Samuel Nathaniel] Behrman's life of "Duveen" which is very funny [A Biography of Joseph Duveen, Baron Duveen, 1869-1939, 1952]. |
| 1965/06/06 | Samuel Nathaniel Behrman | Biography of Joseph Duveen, Baron Duveen, 1869-1939 |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 253
| On Friday I went to Lexington for some examinations at the clinic (Dr. Fortune) and was supposed to return that afternoon but stayed overnight in the hospital for more tests yesterday morning. What with enemas, proctoscopes, barium enemas, etc. I had a miserable time. When I began these examinations ten or fifteen years ago they were unpleasant but bearable. Since then, my insides have become so sensitive that they are a real torment. However, there is no cancer, there are no ulcers, just a great deal of inflammation and sensitivity, etc. The results of all the tests are not yet in. However, on Friday I had lunch with the Hammers, and borrowed from them the Tao of Painting [by Mai Mai Sze, 1963] to take to the hospital. I had some very enjoyable moments reading it. A very exciting first chapter. Also read [Samuel Nathaniel] Behrman's life of "Duveen" which is very funny [A Biography of Joseph Duveen, Baron Duveen, 1869-1939, 1952]. |
| 1965/06/11 | Mai-Mai Sze | Tao of Painting |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 255
| I take delight in Mai Mai Sze's Tao of Painting, a deep and contemplative book. I am reading it slowly with great profit. She is becoming (with Nora Chadwick, Eleanor Duckett) one of my secret loves. Nora Chadwick writes charming letters and Eleanor Duckett sent me a beautiful spontaneous note written in the Cambridge library on Ascension Day, with a splendid quote on the monastic life from a ninth-century text. |
| 1965/06/23 | Eric Gill | Clothes: An Essay upon the Nature and Significance of the Natural and Artificial Integuments Worn by Men and Women |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 12
| I have very much enjoyed The Tao of Painting, which I will send back soon. Duveen is priceless. But I am afraid it has almost fallen apart. Could I borrow your copy of Eric Gill on Clothes? Carolyn, I have here a copy of Giles's Confucianism and Its Rivals, which you sent me. I have never been clear if this was a loan or an extra that you wanted to get rid of. Could you please let me know. |
| 1965/06/23 | Mai-Mai Sze | Tao of Painting |
Ltrs: WtoF p. 12
| I have very much enjoyed The Tao of Painting, which I will send back soon. Duveen is priceless. But I am afraid it has almost fallen apart. Could I borrow your copy of Eric Gill on Clothes? Carolyn, I have here a copy of Giles's Confucianism and Its Rivals, which you sent me. I have never been clear if this was a loan or an extra that you wanted to get rid of. Could you please let me know. |
| 1965/10/06 | Herbert Eduard Read | Icon and Idea: The Function of Art in the Development of Human Consciousness |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 301
| Picture of Galla Placidia in H[erbert] Read's book [Icon and Idea, 1964]. Byzantine Medallion of her, her son and her daughter. A most lovely and fascinating picture. The children are beautiful but dull. She is full of life and character. A fascinating face. How is it that this face is so contemporary to me, so ready to speak to me? As if she were someone I had always known. I can imagine it is mother, perhaps, I see in her; there is some resemblance, the same kind of features. Anyway I am moved by the picture. |
| 1965/10/13 | Herbert Eduard Read | Icon and Idea: The Function of Art in the Development of Human Consciousness |
Jnl 5 ('63-'65) p. 302
| I finished Read's Icon and Idea-Monday finished [Josef] Pieper In Tune with the World: [A Theory of Festivity, 1965] and wrote a review. Brother Dunstan is typing the last of Conjectures. |
| 1966/09/10 | Paul Klee | Diaries of Paul Klee |
Jnl 6 ('66-'67) p. 130
| In the U. of L. library, read Sartre on bad faith (can use it - but oversubtle??). Then found the Bingham poetry room (new) and looked through the Random House Rene Char. Quiet and peaceful in there - no one at all there and all the lamps lit. Must go back. Lunch in the cafeteria about 1:15 - some rock in the Juke box - Beatles sounded good. Back to library - some of [Paul] Klee's diaries and notes. |