Books by Thomas Merton
compiled by Paul M. Pearson, Ph.D.
US editions with date of first publication
Thirty Poems – New Directions 1944
A Man in the Divided Sea – New Directions 1946
Figures for an Apocalypse – New Directions 1948
Exile Ends in Glory – Bruce 1948*
The Seven Storey Mountain – Harcourt, Brace 1948*
Seeds of Contemplation – New Directions 1949
The Tears of the Blind Lions – New Directions 1949
The Waters of Siloe – Harcourt, Brace 1949*
What are These Wounds? – Bruce 1950*
The Ascent to Truth – Harcourt, Brace 1951*
The Sign of Jonas – Harcourt, Brace 1953*
Bread in the Wilderness – New Directions 1953*
The Last of the Fathers – Harcourt, Brace 1954*
No Man is an Island – Harcourt, Brace 1955*
The Living Bread – Farrar, Straus 1956*
Praying the Psalms – Liturgical Press 1956*
Silence in Heaven – Crowell 1956
The Silent Life – Farrar, Straus 1957*
The Strange Islands – New Directions 1957
Thoughts in Solitude – Farrar, Straus 1958*
The Secular Journal – Farrar, Straus 1959
Spiritual Direction and Meditation – Liturgical Press 1960*
God is My Life – Reynal 1960
Disputed Questions – Farrar, Straus 1960*
The Wisdom of the Desert – New Directions 1960*
The Behavior of Titans – New Directions 1961
The New Man – Farrar, Straus 1961*
News Seeds of Contemplation – New Directions 1961*
Original Child Bomb – New Directions 1962
A Thomas Merton – Reader Harcourt, Brace 1962
Life and Holiness – Herder 1963
Emblems of a Season of Fury – New Directions 1963
Seeds of Destruction – Farrar, Straus 1964*
Gandhi on Non-Violence – New Directions 1965*
The Way of Chuang Tzu – New Directions 1965*
Seasons of Celebration – Farrar, Straus 1965*
Raids on the Unspeakable – New Directions 1966*
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander – Doubleday 1966*
Mystics and Zen Masters – Farrar, Straus 1967*
Cables to the Ace – New Directions 1968
Faith and Violence – Notre Dame 1968
Zen and the Birds of Appetite – New Directions 1968*
My Argument with the Gestapo – Doubleday 1969*
Climate of Monastic Prayer – Cistercian Publications 1969*
(Contemplative Prayer)
The Geography of Lograire – New Directions 1969
Early Poems – Anvil Press 1971
Opening the Bible – Liturgical Press 1971
Contemplation in a World of Action – Doubleday 1971
Thomas Merton on Peace – McCall 1971
The Asian Journal – New Directions 1973*
He Is Risen – Argus 1975
Ishi Means Man – Unicorn Press 1976*
The Monastic Journey – Sheed, Andrews 1977
Collected Poems – New Directions 1977
Love and Living – FSG 1979*
The Non-Violent Alternative – FSG 1980*
The Literary Essays – New Directions 1981
Day of a Stranger – Gibbs M Smith 1981
Introductions East and West – Unicorn Press 1981
Woods, Shore, Desert – Museum of New Mexico Press 1982
A Vow of Conversation – FSG 1988
Thomas Merton in Alaska – New Directions 1989
Thomas Merton: Spiritual master – Paulist Press 1992
Springs of Contemplation – Farrar, Straus 1992*
Passion for Peace – Crossroad 1995
Thomas Merton: Essential Writings – Orbis Books 2000
Dialogues with Silence – Harper 2001*
The Inner Experience – Harper 2003*
Seeking Paradise – Orbis Books 2003
Peace in a Post-Christian Era – Orbis Books 2004
In the Dark Before Dawn – New Directions 2005*
Cassian and the Fathers – Cistercian Pub. 2005
Cold War Letters – Orbis Books 2006
Pre-Benedictine Monasticism – Cistercian Pub. 2006
Introduction to Christian Mysticism – Cistercian Pub. 2008
A Life in Letters – Harper 2008
The Rule of St. Benedict – Cistercian Pub. 2009
Monastic Observances – Cistercian Pub. 2010*
The Life of the Vows – Cistercian Pub. 2012*
Selected Essays – Orbis 2013*
In the Valley of Wormwood – Cistercian Pub. 2013*
Thomas Merton: Early Essays – Cistercian Pub. 2015*
Charter, Customs and Constitutions of the Cistericans – Cistercian Pub. 2015*
Cistercian Fathers and Their Monastic Theology – Cistercian Pub. 2016*
Complete journals of Thomas Merton
Published by HarperSanFrancisco
Run to the Mountain: The Story of a Vocation 1995* (1939-1941)
Entering the Silence : Becoming a Monk & Writer 1996* (1941-1952)
A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life 1996* (1952-1960)
Turning Toward the World: The Pivotal Years 1996* (1960-1963)
Dancing in the Water of Life: Seeking Peace in The Hermitage 1997* (1963-1965)
Learning to Love: Exploring Solitude and The Hermitage 1997* (1966-1967)
The Other Side of the Mountain: The End of the Journey 1998* (1967-1968)
The Intimate Merton: His Life from His Journals 1999*
Selected letters – Published by Farrar Straus Giroux
The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters on Religious Experience and Social Concerns 1985*
The Road to Joy: Letters to New and Old Friends 1989*
The School of Charity: Letters on Religious Renewal and Spiritual Direction 1990*
The Courage for Truth: Letters to Writers 1993*
Witness to Freedom : Letters in Times of Crisis 1994*
Other selected letters
Cooper, David D., ed. Thomas Merton & James Laughlin: Selected Letters. W.W. Norton. 1997
Faggen, Robert, ed. Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz. Farrar Straus Giroux. 1997
Samway, Patrick, ed. The Letters of Robert Giroux and Thomas Merton. Notre Dame. 2015*
Scutchfield, Douglas, ed. The Letters of Thomas Merton and Victor & Carolyn Hammer. UPK. 2014*
Tardiff, Mary, ed. At Home in the World: The Letters of Thomas Merton & Rosemary Radford Ruether. Orbis Books. 1995
Wild, Robert, ed. Compassionate Fire: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Catherine De Hueck Doherty. Ave Maria Press. 2009*
Selected books about Thomas Merton
Apel, William. Signs of Peace: The Interfaith Letters of Thomas Merton. Orbis Books. 2006*
Cunningham, Lawrence S. Thomas Merton & the Monastic Vision. Eerdmans Publishing. 1999*
Forest, Jim. Living with Wisdom: A Life of Thomas Merton. Orbis Books. 2008
Lipsey, Roger. Angelic Mistakes: The Art of Thomas Merton. New Seeds. 2006
Mott, Michael. The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton. Houghton Mifflin. 1984
Shannon, William H. Silent Lamp: The Thomas Merton Story. Crossroad. 1992
Shannon, William H. Thomas Merton: An Introduction. St. Anthony Messenger Press. 2005*
Shannon, William H., Christine M. Bochen, Patrick F. O’Connell. The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia. Orbis Books. 2002
Periodicals
The Merton Annual: Studies in Culture, Spirituality & Social Concerns. Published annually.
The Merton Journal. Published by the Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
The Merton Seasonal: A Quarterly Review. Published by the International Thomas Merton Society and the Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University.
Bibliographies
Breit, Marquita E., Patricia A. Burton, Paul M. Pearson, eds. ‘About Merton’: Secondary Sources 1945-2000: A Bibliographic Workbook. Louisville: Thomas Merton Foundation. 2002
Breit, Marquita E. and Robert E. Daggy, eds. Thomas Merton: A Comprehensive Bibliography. New York: Garland. 1986
Burton, Patricia A. More Than Silence: A Bibliography of Thomas Merton. Lanham: Scarecrow Press. 2008
* Available as an electronic book
compiled by Paul M. Pearson, Ph.D.
The Thomas Merton Center Bellarmine University
2001 Newburg Road Louisville, KY 40205
Fall 2016
