The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Milosz, Czeslaw, 1911-2004

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Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1958-1968, 1990

Volume: 45 item(s); 95 pg(s)

Scope and Content

Biography

Czeslaw Milosz was a Polish poet who among his many accolades won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980. Milosz was part of the Polish socialist resistance to the Nazis during World War II. After the war, he sought political asylum in France, opposing the repressive regime that came to power. His work, The Captive Mind was the first that caught Merton's attention and motivated him to write to Milosz. In 1960, Milosz accepted a professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, and lived in the United States for the rest of his life. Merton and Milosz first met at Gethsemani in September of 1964. Later, Merton would visit Milosz in California in October of 1968. Christine Bochen notes a number of diverse themes in their correspondence: "candid critiques of each other's work; suggestions for reading; and reflections on nature and history, religion and the Church, mass media and American society." (Source: The Courage for Truth, pp. 53-54.)

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

All letters between Merton and Milosz are published in Striving Towards Being, edited by Robert Faggen; and see also Cold War Letters #56 and other letters from Merton to Milosz in The Courage for Truth, pp. 53-86.

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
 1958/12/06 TLSfrom MertonHaving read your remarkable book "The Captive Mind" I find it necessary to write to you, as withoutYes  
 1959/01/17 TALSto MertonYour letter traveled quite a long time. I thank you cordially for it and feel it created alreadyYes  
 1959/02/28 (#01)TLSfrom MertonThanks for your splendid letter. It was delayedin [sic] reaching me by the inevitable monasticYes  
 1959/02/28 (#02)TL[c]from MertonThanks for your splendid letter. It was delayedin [sic] reaching me by the inevitable monasticYes  
 1959/02/28 (#03)TNSfrom MertonI realize it might seem a great impertinence to offer this as reading for people behind the IronYes [Merton sent this note attached to something he wrote - in <i>Striving Towards Being</i>, Faggen identifies this as a note attached to "Letter to an Innocent Bystander"]
 1959/05/21 TL[c]from MertonThe only trouble with receiving letters as good and full as yours,Yes [part of the right margin of the first page cut off]
 1959/05/no? (#01)TLSto MertonYou seem to give me credit of wisdom. In fact I am uneasy about being an adult and standing alone,Yes  
 1959/05/no? (#02)TLSto MertonAnd yet, I continue. This is a beautiful Easter day. Tits before the house are busy with theirYes [dated by Faggen, "before May 21,1959 [-] Easter Saturday"]
 1959/07/16 TLSto MertonAfter I got your last letter I felt an urge to answer immediately but it is better I did not.Yes  
 1959/09/12 TLSfrom MertonFirst of all thanks for Alpha's book, <u>Le Samedi Saint</u>. I read it with interest, and found itYes  
 1960/02/28 TALSto MertonCenturies. Once I wrote a long letter to you but did not send it. First, about your books.Yes  
 1960/05/06 (#01)TALSfrom MertonIt is a shame to make so fine a letter as your last one wait so long for an answer, and yet it isYes  
 1960/05/06 (#02)TL[c]from MertonIt is a shame to make so fine a letter as your last one wait so long for an answer, and yet it isYes  
 1960/07/08 TALSto Merton1. You should not call yourself a bourgeois. First, if that term can be used in social sciences,Yes  
 1960/10/30 TLSto MertonA few weeks ago I came with my family to Berkeley where I teach Polish literature. Quite a turmoilYes  
 1960/11/09 TL[c]from MertonIt was a great pleasure to get your letter of Oct. 30th and to realize that you were actuallyYes  
 1960/no/no? TLto MertonYour letters give me always joy. I should tell you something of my impressions from my readingYes [no date - Faggen places it between the 1960/02/28 and 1959/09/12 letters]
 1961/03/28 (#01)TALS[x]from MertonIt is a terribly long time since your last letter. And it was a good one too. The better they are,Yes  
 1961/03/28 (#02)HLS[x]from MertonThis is part an added note to the long letter I mailed this morning. Don't be perturbed aboutYes  
 1961/05/30 TALSto MertonThere are too many things to tell, which makes writing a letter hard. Those things are ratherYes  
 1961/06/05 TLS[x]from MertonYour letter is very meaningful to me. Without having anything specific to say eit[her] I respondYes  
 1961/06/15 HLSto MertonJust a few words to correct the impression that I am more in angoisse than I am in it reallyYes [Faggen's book incorrectly prints "anguosse" instead of "angoisse"]
 1961/09/16 TLS[x]from MertonI wish I could write to you more often. To you I can talk, and begin to say what I want to say.Yes  
 1961/10/05 TALSto MertonMy trip did not materialize, perhaps because of a routine or a feeling that there are many thingsYes  
 1961/no/no? TALSto MertonI have read with astonishment your article on Heraclitus (or Herakleitos, as you justly spell)Yes  
 1962/01/18 TLS[x]from MertonYour letters are the best, I think, and therefore the hardest to answer. Or rather not the hardest,Yes  
 1962/02/no? HLSto MertonJust a few words to thank you for your letter and materials. "Song for the Death of Averroës"Yes  
 1962/03/14 (#01)TLSto MertonI am sad as I have been thinking these last times that perhaps I offended you, that I should notYes  
 1962/03/14 (#02)TALSto MertonI add. The question of peace movements is important here, in view of a violent controversy aroundYes  
 1962/03/21 transcriptfrom MertonThere are few people whose advice I respect as much as I do yours, and whatever you say I takeYes [Cold War Letters #56 - transcript from bound set]
 1963/05/18 TLSto MertonI do nt [sic] know how to start the letter - so long time and yet so swift passage of time.Yes  
 1963/11/11 TAL[c]from MertonI waited quite a while for Laughlin to send the Polish poets, and then when he sent them,Yes  
 1964/08/31 HLSto MertonI am supposed to be in Chicago around Sept. 10 and at last I see the occasion to fly to LouisvilleYes  
 1964/12/19 TL[c]from MertonJust a word to wish you the blessings of the holy season and to say I have recently written to AnneYes  
 1964/12/31 TALSto MertonI write this on New Year's Eve which we spend traditionally at home, without any company, since thatYes  
 1965/03/30 TL[c]from MertonYour good reflective letter of New Year's Eve was one that I appreciated very much. In fact I savedYes  
 1968/01/05 TL[c]from MertonIt is a long time since I have heard from you. In fact three years ago to the day I rememberYes  
 1968/01/15 TLSto MertonI lived through quite turbulent two years. Very emotional. Also long stays in France.Yes  
 1968/02/no? HLSto MertonI know I wounded you by my last letter. Forgive me. Forgive my stupid and cruel jokes.Yes  
 1968/03/15 TL[c]from MertonLet me reassure you. There was absolutely nothing wounding in your letter. Anything you mayYes  
 1968/07/01 TLS[x]from MertonI'm fighting my way through another issue of my magazine, and am consoled by the quality of so muchYes  
 1968/07/29 TALS[x]from MertonThe Penguin selection of Herbert is splendid. A very fine book. I keep being impressed by his workYes  
 1968/11/21 HPCS[x]from MertonI have been in India about a month and have met quite a few interesting people. Seen monasteries,Yes [written from Darjeeling, India]
 1990/09/08 TLS[x]from Bochen, Christine M.Thank you for your letter of August 27, 1990. I know that Farrar, Strauss, Giroux is publishing  concerning letters the Merton Center did not have from Yale archive / publication of Merton-Milosz correspondence
 undated/no/no otherto MertonUn Chant [-] Anne [-] Du rivage ou je me tiens la terre s'éloigne, [- ] la clarté de ses bois  [handwritten in pen: "1934 [-] Czeslaw Milosz traduit par O.V. de L. Milosz (Oscar-Vladislas de Lubisez Milosz, Czeslaw Milosz' uncle)]
        

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