The Courage for Truth

Letters to James Baldwin, Evelyn Waugh, Henry Miller, and more by the famed monk, “one of the great American letter-writers of the century” (Kirkus Reviews).

From 1948 until his death in 1968, Trappist monk and author of The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton corresponded with writers around the world, sharing with them his concerns about war, violence and repression, racism and injustice, and all forms of human aggression.

Addressed to Evelyn Waugh, Czeslaw Milosz, Boris Pasternak, James Baldwin, Walker Percy, Victoria Ocampo, Henry Miller, Jacques Maritain, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William Carlos Williams, and others, this collection “reveals aspects of the monk that are seldom seen in literature apart from his letters” (Booklist).

“Witty . . . confessional . . . insightful.” —The Boston Globe

“Highly articulate and quietly inspirational.” —Publishers Weekly