The Intimate Merton

This text uses edited features to tell Merton's life in his own words from 1939 to his death in 1968. His love of God, his struggles with the community life of his monastery and in particular with his Abbot, his religious writings and his love affair with a young nurse are recounted.;Merton lent his support to many reforming causes, one instance being the day Joan Baez tried to persuade him to leave the monastery and join her anti-war campaign. He describes falling in love, the letters, secret phone calls, clandestine meetings with "M" and the ending of their relationship to re-commit himself as a celibate monk.