“61 Highway Blues” (McDowell), 103
Abdeslam, Sidi, 186, 188; visit with Merton, 148–49, 162
Absurdism, 96
“All I Really Want to Do” (Dylan), 57; Byrds’ version of, 57; Cher’s version of, 57
“American Pie” (McLean), 54, 210n8
Animals, 58; version of “House of the Rising Sun,” 58
Another Side of Bob Dylan (Dylan), 56–57, 104; as Dylan’s final all-acoustic album, 56–57; Dylan’s picture on the album cover, 57; hip attitude on, 57; and the “Some Other Kinds of Songs” poems, 134
Anthology of American Folk Music (H. Smith), 55
Anthony, in the desert, 18, 19–20
Antipoems, 78
Any Day Now (Baez), 153
Arendt, Hannah, Eichmann in Jerusalem, 204n22
Armstrong, Louis, 181
Art songs, 165
Ascension (Coltrane), 178, 180–81, 182; and Christ’s ascension, 182; Merton on, 180
Ascent to Truth, The (Merton), 35
Athanasius, 19
“Aubade on a Cloudy Morning” (Merton), 81
Augustine, 25, 110; son of (Adeodatus), 206n9
Baez, Joan, 6, 81, 101, 161, 171, 181, 186, 222n31; Any Day Now, 151; debut of, 150; and Dylan, 151, 153–54; Joan Baez, 82, 214n17; on Niles, 165; Noël, 153, 162; as “the Queen of Folk,” 81; recording of Niles’s songs, 165; as Time magazine’s “Sybil with a Guitar,” 81; version of “Silver Dagger,” 81–84, 99, 102, 151; visit of (with Sandperl) with Merton, 150–56
Ballad of Bob Dylan, The (Epstein), 112
Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, The (comp. Niles), 160–61
“Ballad of a Thin Man” (Dylan), 99, 104
Bamberger, John Eudes, 125
Band, The (originally the Hawks), 113, 170, 171, 174; Music of Big Pink, 171
Basement Tapes, 170–71; and the Big Ben Demos, 171; and the Big Pink recording studio, 170; CDs of all 139 tracks (Bootleg Series, Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete), 172; first official album (Basement Tapes), 172; recording process of (“go forward by turning back the clock”), 170; and the Red Room recording studio, 170.
Beale Street, 103
Beat poets, 78
Beatles, 57, 59, 101; “Help,” 101; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 168, 171
Being and Nothingness (Sartre), 31
Belafonte, Harry, 55
Beneath the Mask of Holiness (Shaw), 7
Bernard of Clairvaux, 34
Berrigan, Daniel, 45, 146–47; burning of draft board files by, 185, 186; and the Catonsville Nine, 185; on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List, 185
Berrigan, Philip, 45
Berry, Wendell, 180
Berryman, John, 18
Biafra, famine in, 179
Big Bopper, 54
Big Fisherman, The (Douglas), 31
“Black Crow Blues” (Dylan), 57
Black Like Me (J. H. Griffin), 4, 142
“Blessed Are the Meek: The Roots of Christian Nonviolence” (Merton), 157; dedication of to Baez, 157
Blonde on Blonde (Dylan), 2, 113, 122; cover photo of, 133; and Reinhardt’s “black-on-black” paintings, 133; release date of, 217n12
“Blowin’ in the Wind” (Dylan), 56; Peter, Paul and Mary’s version of, 56, 59
Bly, Robert, 2
“Bob Dylan: Well, What Have We Here?” (Siegel), 122
“Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” (Dylan), 134
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich, 179
“Boots of Spanish Leather” (Dylan), 151
Bread in the Wilderness (Merton), 35
Brideshead Revisited (Waugh), 86, 102
Bringing It All Back Home (Dylan), 58–59, 104; back-cover note line, 136; cover photo of, 111; Side A of, 58; Side B of, 58; and the untitled prose-poem, 134
Browne, Malcolm, 215n13
Bruce, Lenny, 6–7, 204n22; “My Name Is Adolf Eichmann,” 6, 204n22
Buber, Martin, 179
Burns, Flavian, 179
Butterfield, Paul, 174
Byrd, Donald, 58
Byrds, 57; Sweetheart of the Rodeo, 171; version of “All I Really Want to Do,” 57; version of “Mr. Tambourine Man,” 59, 101, 211n20; version of “Nothing Was Delivered,” 171; version of “Turn, Turn, Turn,” 101; version of “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” 171
Cables to the Ace, or Familiar Liturgies of Misunderstanding (Merton), 137–42, 144, 159, 183, 196; Dadaist dissociation in (sections 54 and 70), 138; Dylan’s influence on, 137–38, 140–42; Epilogue of, 140; humor in, 141; images of electricity in, 139–40; “infinite variety” in, 137–38; as a long poem in eighty-eight numbered sections, 137; lyrics about Margie Smith in (sections 58 and 75), 138; and Merton’s apprehension about the dehumanizing effects of technology (sections 8, 34, 35, and 83), 139; Merton’s assessment of, 147–48, 183; Merton’s reference to as “a long poetic retch,” 148; original title of (Edifying Cables), 137; religious pieces in (sections 80, 84, and 86), 138–39; section 1 of, 139–40
Camus, Albert, 77, 90, 105, 108, 130, 159; on the “absurd man,” 96; The Myth of Sisyphus, 96, 97; The Plague, 31; The Stranger, 99
“Cancer Blues” (Merton), 123–24; original title of (“A Blues for Margie”), 123; template for (Dylan’s “From a Buick 6”), 123–24
Cardinale, Claudia, 218n1
“Carol” (Niles), 165
Cash, Johnny, 193–94; and Dylan, 193–94; epiphany of following a failed suicide attempt, 194
Catholic Peace Fellowship (CPF), 90; Merton’s defection from, 93
Catonsville Nine, 185
“Certain Proverbs Arise Out of Dreams” (Merton), 94
“Chant to Be Used in Processions around a Site with Furnaces” (Merton), 6, 204n22
Cher, 57; version of “All I Really Want to Do,” 57
Chicago Democratic Convention, beating of student protesters at, 178–79
“Chimes of Freedom” (Dylan), 56, 151
Chronicles (Dylan), 113
Chuang Tzu, 188
City Lights Bookstore, 187, 189, 204n22
Clapton, Eric, 60
“Clothesline Sage” (Basement Tapes), 171
Cloud of Unknowing, The, 219n14
Cold War, 44–45
Coleman, Ornette, 178
Collected Poems (Thomas), 77
Coltrane, John, 178, 180–83; Ascension, 178, 180–81, 182; on music as a form of prayer, 182; as a saint in the African Orthodox Church, 183
Coney Island of the Mind (Ferlinghetti), 77
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (Merton), 41, 45
Cooper, David, 141
Coughlin, Charles E., 36; Hour of Power radio program, 36; ouster of from the airwaves in 1939, 36
Courage to Be, The (Tillich), 31, 85
“Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood)” (Basement Tapes), 171
“Crawling Up a Hill” (John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers), 59
Crudup, Arthur, “That’s Alright, Mama,” 56, 211nn14–15
Cuban Missile Crisis, 46
Curtis, Jim, 219n1
Dalai Lama: audience of with Merton, 189–90; prayer of at Merton’s grave, 192
Dana, Doris, 165
Danko, Rick, 170
Darío, Rubén, 159
Dark Night of the Soul, The (John of the Cross), 219n14
Death of a Salesman (A. Miller), 31
Deer: and Merton, 9–11, 65–66, 67–68, 74, 193, 212n7; in Psalm 41, 68; in the Song of Solomon, 68
“Denise” (Dylan), 57
Desert, the, 19–20; and Anthony, 18, 19–20; as holy ground, 21–22; and Jesus, 18, 20; and John the Baptist, 18; Merton’s editorial changing of Gethsemani “in a desert” to “in the wilderness,” 21–22; the metaphorical desert, 31; and Moses, 20; the word desert compared to wilderness, 21. See also Desert Fathers
Desert Fathers, 18, 19–20, 31–32. See also Anthony
“Desolation Row” (Dylan), 7
Disputed Questions (Merton), 45
Doherty, Catherine de Hueck, 20
Dont Look Back (1967), 3, 59, 114, 154, 203n10, 221n21
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” (Dylan), 56
Dorsey, Tommy, 181
Douglas, Lloyd C., The Big Fisherman, 31
Douglass, James W., 46
Dunne, Frederic, 16, 27, 30, 205n5; death of, 32; influence of on Merton, 23–24, 32–33; love for old books and old things in general, 33; work of in the abbey’s scriptorium, 33
Dylan, Bob, 51, 54–61, 113–17, 161, 168–76; attendance at a Buddy Holly concert (January 31, 1959), 54; and Baez, 151, 153–54; on Baez’s recording of “Silver Dagger,” 83; and Cash, 193–94; as the character Alias in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), 174; Chronicles (memoir), 113; concert tour of England (April–May 1965), 59; conversion of to evangelical Christianity, 5, 194; on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post as “Rebel King of Rock ’n’ Roll,” 116, 121–22; database of interviews by (Every Mind Polluting Word), 205n28; decision of not to perform at the Woodstock Festival (1969), 173; earliest known tape of him playing music (“Hey, Little Richard”), 53–54; and the Eat the Document documentary film project, 169; as an enigma, 5; fans of, 3, 115–16, 173; favorite literary devices of, 140–41; first album of, 55; and Ginsberg’s recommended reading, 114; hecklers of, 115–16; and Hi Lo Ha, 168–69; in high school bands, 54; independence of, 5; and interviews, 3; joint session with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, 59–60; as “Little Junior,” 55; love of photography, 4; monks in the songs of, 7; and the motorcycle accident, 111–13, 146; the name “Bob Dylan,” 54; at the Newport Folk Festival (July 25, 1965), 52–53; on Niles, 161; as a Noble Prize for literature recipient, 1; numbering of his songs in a series by, 134; The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963–1965, DVD, 210n2; pencil mustache of, 210n7; as the personification of “sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll,” 3; and the poet Dylan Thomas, 54; poetry of, 134, 136; as a prolific songwriter, 3–4; as a spiritual pilgrim, 5–6; Tarantula, 115, 122, 158, 169; as unhermitlike, 175–76; in Vee’s backup band, the Shadows (as Elston Gunnn), 54; as a visual artist, 4, 204n15; Writings and Drawings, 4. See also Dylan, Bob, songs and albums by
Dylan, Bob, songs and albums by: “All I Really Want to Do,” 57; Another Side of Bob Dylan, 56–58, 104, 133, 134; “Ballad of a Thin Man,” 99, 104; “Black Crow Blues,” 57; Blonde on Blonde, 2, 113, 122, 217n12; “Blowin’ in the Wind,” 56; “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream,” 134; “Boots of Spanish Leather,” 151; Bringing It All Back Home, 58–59, 104, 134, 136; “Chimes of Freedom,” 56, 151; “Denise,” 57; “Desolation Row,” 7; “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” 56; The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, 56, 193; “From a Buick 6,” 123; “Gates of Eden,” 7, 59, 135, 139, 143–44, 145; “Girl from the North Country,” 56; Good as I Been to You, 211n16; Great White Wonder, 172; “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” 56; “Hey, Little Richard,” 54; Highway 61 Revisited, 102–5, 133, 141, 194; “Highway 61 Revisited,” 104; “I Can’t Leave Her Behind,” 114, 218n13; “I Shall Be Free No. 10,” 134; “I Want You,” 134; “If You Gotta Go, Go Now,” 60; “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” 56, 57, 151; “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” 52, 59, 144; “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” 59, 139, 144; John Wesley Harding, 171– 72, 177–78, 180, 194; “Just Like a Woman,” 134–35; “Lenny Bruce,” 205n25; “Like a Rolling Stone,” 61, 99, 101, 104, 148, 211n23, 211n25; “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” 58; “Maggie’s Farm,” 51, 52; “Masters of War,” 56; “Mixed Up Confusion,” 56, 211n15; “Mr. Tambourine Man,” 59, 101, 143, 151, 211n20; “My Back Pages,” 57; Nashville Skyline, 174, 193, 194; “On a Rainy Afternoon,” 114, 218n13; “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35,” 134, 160; “She Belongs to Me,” 134; “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” 58, 59; Time Out of Mind, 54; The Times They Are A-Changin’, 56, 104, 134; “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” 1, 56, 151; “Tombstone Blues,” 99, 104; “What Kind of Friend Is This,” 114, 218n13; “With God on Our Side,” 56; World Gone Wrong, 211n16. See also Basement Tapes
Eckhart, Meister, 66, 139; as Merton’s “life-raft” while at the hospital, 72
Egan, Peter, “The Great Dylan Crash,” 217n1
Eichmann, Adolf, 204n22
Eichmann in Jerusalem (Arendt), 204n22
Eighteen Poems (Merton), 156, 213n6
Eliot, T. S., “Little Gidding,” 42–43
Ellington, Duke, 181
Ellul, Jacques, Technological Society, 139
Emblems of a Season of Fury (Merton), 45, 160
Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton, The (Weis), 212n7
Epstein, Daniel Mark, The Ballad of Bob Dylan, 112
Estate of Poetry, The (Muir), 135–36
“Eve of Destruction” (McGuire), 101
Existentialism, 31
Faith and Violence (Merton), 45, 147, 163
Fariña, Richard, 112
Faulkner, William, 150
Feast of the Annunciation, 71; and Merton’s private ritual (renewal of his resolution to become a Carthusian), 71
Ferlinghetti, Lawrence, 78, 169, 186–87, 204n22; “15,” 169; Coney Island of the Mind, 77
Festival! (2005), 210n3
Fielding, Henry, Tom Jones, 81
Flight from Woman, The (Stern), 215n33
Flint, Hugh, 60
Folk-rock, 59
Follow the Ecstasy (J. H. Griffin), 7
“For My Brother: Reported Missing in Action, 1943” (Merton), 23
Fox, James, 33, 37, 40, 90, 153; on Merton’s mental state, 38; relationship with Merton, 33–35, 47–48, 125–26; resignation of as abbot to become a hermit, 164; view of what a hermit’s life entails, 48
Francis, rebuilding of the San Damiano Chapel by, 27
Franciscans, 16
Freedgood, Sy, 164; death of, 164
Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, The (Dylan), 56, 193
French Symbolists, 114
Freud, Sigmund, psychoanalysis of Leonardo da Vinci based on his artwork, 38
Friendship House, 20
“From a Buick 6” (Dylan), 123–24
Gandhi, Mahatma, 152
Gandhi on Non-Violence (Merton), 45, 188
“Gates of Eden” (Dylan), 7, 59, 135, 139, 143–44, 145
Geography of Lograire, The (Merton), 183
Gershwin, George, 38; misdiagnosis by Zilboorg, 38
Giacometti, Alberto, 31
Gibbon, Edward, 32
Gibson, Bob, 150
Gilson, Étienne, 143
Ginsberg, Allen, 19, 78; recommended reading advice given to Dylan by, 114
“Girl from the North Country” (Dylan), 56
Giroux, Robert, 18, 19, 24, 30, 37, 193
Glass, Philip, 101
Glass Menagerie, The (T. Williams), 155–56
“Go ’Way from My Window” (Niles), 161, 165
“Goin’ to Acapulco” (Basement Tapes), 171
Golden Chords, 54
Good as I Been to You (Dylan), 211n16
Goodman, Benny, 181
Graham, Billy, 31
“Great Dylan Crash, The” (Egan), 217n1
Great White Wonder (Dylan), 172
Griffin, John Howard, 4, 142–45, 195; Black Like Me, 4, 142; Follow the Ecstasy, 7
Griffin, Paul, 210n8
Griffiths, Bede, 207–8n18
Grossman, Albert, 53, 111, 114, 169, 170, 174; and the Big Ben Demos, 171; and Dylan’s songwriting royalties, 174; firing of by Dylan, 174; management style of, 113
Grossman, Sally, 111; photo of on the cover of Bringing It All Back Home, 111
Hammer, Carolyn and Victor, 126–30, 160, 163, 165; disagreement with Merton about aesthetics, 127–29; and Merton’s request for a handmade, limited edition of the Menendez poems, 129–30; on Reinhardt, 128; Victor’s death, 163
Hammond, John, Jr., 217n1, 217n5; “Was Dylan Riding His Motorcycle?: John Hammond Jr. Speaks,” 217n5
Handy, W. C., “St. Louis Blues,” 103
“Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, A” (Dylan), 56
Hart, Moss, 38
Hellman, Lillian, 38
“Help” (Beatles), 101
Hentoff, Nat, 106
Hermits: and the Coptic rite for “putting away a hermit,” 49; dismissive views of, 32
Hernandez, Miguel, 131
Hesse, Hermann, Siddartha, 77
Hester, Carolyn, 55
“Hey, Little Richard” (Dylan), 54
Heylin, Clinton, 211n21
“Highway 51” (C. Jones), 55, 211n13
Highway 61, 103; bisecting of America geographically, 103; bridging of America racially, 103; significant cities passed through, 103
Highway 61 Revisited (Dylan), 102–5, 194; cover photo of, 111; and Dylan’s kaleidoscopic images, 103; Dylan’s liner notes to, 104, 141; and Highway 61, 103; Merton on, 103; offbeat characters on, 104; title track of, 104; and Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, 102–3, 133
“Highway 61 Revisited” (Dylan), 104
Holiday, Billie, 181
Holly, Buddy, 54
Hooker, John Lee, 113
Horney, Karen, 37
Höss, Rudolf, 204n22
Hour of Power radio program, 36
“House of the Rising Sun”: Animals’ version of, 58; Wilson’s overdubbing of Dylan’s version of, 58
Hudson, Garth, 170
“I Can’t Leave Her Behind” (Dylan), 114, 218n13
“I Shall Be Free No. 10” (Dylan), 134
“I Shall Be Released” (Basement Tapes), 176
“I Want You” (Dylan), 234
“I Wonder as I Wander” (Niles), 161, 162, 165
Ian and Sylvia, version of “Tears of Rage,” 171
“If You Gotta Go, Go Now” (Dylan), 60
“I’m Not There (1956)” (Basement Tapes), 171
Institute for the Study of Nonviolence, 151
Isaac of Nineveh, 68
“It Ain’t Me, Babe” (Dylan), 56, 57, 151; the Turtles’ version of, 57
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” (Dylan), 52, 59, 144
“It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” (Dylan), 59, 139, 144
Jazz: free jazz, 180–81; and Merton, 181–82
“Jenny, Jenny” (Little Richard), 54
Jesus: in the desert, 20; and the Mount of Olives, 50
John the Baptist, in the desert, 18
John of the Cross, 69; The Dark Night of the Soul, 219n14
John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, 59; “Crawling Up a Hill,” 59; joint session with Dylan, 59–60
John Wesley Harding (Dylan), 171–72, 177–78, 180, 194; biblical allusions among the songs on, 180, 194; photo of Dylan on the album cover, 177
Johnson, Lyndon B., 92–93
Johnson, Robert, 103
Jones, Curtis, “Highway 51,” 55, 211n13
Jones, Elvin, 181
Jones, LeRoi, 178
Joyce, James, 77
Jubilee magazine, 110
“Just Like a Woman” (Dylan), 134–35
Kappus, Franz, 69
Kennedy, Ethel, 45
Kennedy, John F., 46
Kennedy, Robert F., assassination of, 178, 185
Kierkegaard, Søren, 96; breaking of his engagement to Regine Olsen, 98–99; The Present Age, 50–51
King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1, 151; assassination of, 178, 184; “Beyond Vietnam” sermon of, 91, 214n8; “I Have a Dream” speech of, 151
Lady in the Dark (1941), 38
Last of the Fathers, The: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and the Encyclical Letter, Doctor Mellifluus (Merton), 35
Laughlin, James, 2, 77–79, 106, 122, 146; advice of to Merton about Margie, 79; on Dylan, 108; and “the Menendez file,” 79, 80, 83, 129
Lautréamont, Comte de, Songs of Maldoror, 114
Leadbelly, 103; “Midnight Special,” 55
Lecky, William E. H., 32
Leffert, Mark, “The Psychoanalysis and Death of George Gershwin: An American Tragedy,” 208n23
“Lenny Bruce” (Dylan), 205n25
Lentfoehr, Thérèse, 66, 212n2; and the collection of Merton’s manuscripts, 66
Letters to a Young Poet (Rilke), 69–70, 76
Lewis, C. S., 36
“Like a Rolling Stone” (Dylan), 61, 99, 101, 104; Dylan’s reference to as “a long piece of vomit,” 61, 148; manuscript of the first draft for, 211n23; Rolling Stone magazine’s ranking of, 211n25
Lincoln, Abraham, 1
Little Brothers of Jesus, 66
“Little Gidding” (Eliot), 42–43
Little Richard, “Jenny, Jenny,” 54
Lomax, Alan, 53
“Louisville Airport, May 5, 1966” (Merton), 80
“Love Minus Zero/No Limit” (Dylan), 58
“Maggie’s Farm” (Dylan), 51, 52
Mann, Manfred, version of “Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn),” 171
Manuel, Elisabeth, 142, 143, 144
Manuel, Richard, 170
Marcuse, Herbert, 141
Maritain, Jacques, 66–67; visit with Merton, 142–45
Masignon, Louis, 148
“Masters of War” (Dylan), 56
Maymudes, Victor, 112
McDowell, Fred, “61 Highway Blues,” 103
McGuire, Barry, “Eve of Destruction,” 101
McLean, Don, “American Pie,” 54, 210n8
McNamara, Robert, 121
“Menendez file, the” (Merton), 59, 80, 89; “Cancer Blues,” 123–24; “Certain Proverbs Arise Out of Dreams,” 94; “Louisville Airport, May 5, 1966,” 80; Merton’s request to the Hammers for a handmade, limited edition of the poems, 129–30; posthumous publication of as Eighteen Poems, 213n6
Merton, Paul, 18, 23; death of, 23
Merton, Thomas, 1, 175–76; birth of, 18; childhood of, 18; college education of, 18–19; death of, 192; on the Desert Fathers, 19–20, 31–32; and Doherty’s Friendship House, 20–21; as an enigma, 5; fans of, 3; fathering of a child by, 16, 25, 206n8; Holy Week retreat of, 16, 20; independence of, 5; influence of on Pope Francis, 1; interest of in Asia, 187–88; and interviews, 3; and jazz, 181–82; joining of the Catholic Church, 16, 19; love of photography, 4; and music, 195–96; as a prolific author, 4; registration of for the draft, 21; rejection of by the Franciscans, 16; as a spiritual pilgrim, 5–6; and the Sufi mystics, 148, 187; teaching career of, 16; US citizenship of, 18; as a visual artist, 4, 127. See also Merton, Thomas, and Dylan; Merton, Thomas, relationship with Margie Smith; Merton, Thomas, as a Trappist; Merton, Thomas, writings of
Merton, Thomas, and Dylan, 2, 133–45 passim, 158–60, 180; adjectives Merton used to describe Dylan and his songs, 159; desire of to have his poems set to music by Dylan, 107; desire of to meet with Dylan, 110; on Dylan’s John Wesley Harding, 180; on Dylan’s rejection of “the sin of being Mister Jones,” 108; on Highway 61, 103–4; and the proposed feature article (never written) about Dylan for Jubilee magazine, 110, 130, 135, 158; quotation of Dylan, 99, 135; view of Dylan as a poet, 105, 136
Merton, Thomas, posthumous publications of: Cold War Letters (2006), 46, 209n13; “The Neurotic Personality in the Monastic Life” (1991), 208n32; Passion for Peace (1995), 46; Peace in the Post-Christian Era (2004), 46; Thomas Merton on Peace (1971, revised in 1980 as The Non-Violent Alternative), 46
Merton, Thomas, relationship with Margie Smith, 74–90, 94–99, 105–10; and the abbey’s phone system, 89–90, 97–98; Bamberger’s counseling of Merton, 125; the destruction of his love letters to Margie, 156; discovery of by a monk at the abbey, 97–98; ending of the relationship, 121–30; final phone call, 167; first letter from Margie and Merton’s response, 75; first phone call, 76; first meeting, 72; the Hammers’ opinion of, 129–30; and the idea of sacrifice, 95; the interception of Margie’s letters at the abbey, 130; Laughlin’s advice to Merton, 79; Merton’s acknowledgment of people who had facilitated the relationship, 125; Merton’s burning of all of Margie’s letters before leaving for Asia, 95; Merton’s confession to Dom James Fox, 98; Merton’s references to Margie as “M” in his journals, 86; Merton’s use of the word affair in reference to, 125; “Silver Dagger” as Merton and Margie’s “binding song,” 81–84, 102, 109, 154–55; Wygal’s advice to Merton, 76, 105–6, 108. See also Merton, Thomas, writings of, “the Menendez file”; Merton, Thomas, writings of, Midsummer Diary
Merton, Thomas, as a Trappist, 2–3; decision of to become a Trappist, 21–22; desire of to become a Carthusian instead, 23–24, 26–27, 34, 71; desire of to become a hermit, 27–29, 34–35, 41–48; destruction of his journals from his first five years in the monastery, 24; epiphany of on the streets of Louisville, 41–42, 44, 46, 193; and the hermitage of “St. Anne’s,” 35, 42; influence of Dom Frederic Dunne on, 23–24, 32–33; invitations to leave Gethsemani, 43; as master of novices, 36, 47; monastic name of (Father Louis), 1, 23; as a novice, 26; opposition of old-school Catholics to, 36; ordination of (May 1949), 26; as a postulant, 23–25; relationship with Dom James Fox, 33–35, 47–48; taking of solemn vows by, 26; Zilboorg’s diagnosis of, 38–40, 44, 46. See also Merton, Thomas, as a Trappist hermit
Merton, Thomas, as a Trappist hermit, 2, 49, 50–51, 65–110 passim, 122–32, 146–60 passim, 177–91 passim, 192; avoidance of visitors by, 186; and Baez’s music, 81; confirmation of as a hermit of the Roman Catholic Church, 131–32; criticism of, 183; and the deer, 9–11, 65–66, 67–68, 74, 193, 212n7; defection of from the CPF, 93; disagreement with Victor Hammer about aesthetics, 127–29; FBI surveillance of, 183–84; and Four Freedom Songs, 184–85; health problems of, 65–66, 70, 71, 130, 147; “A Hermit’s Preferences,” list of, 166; independence of from the abbey, 162–64; and Monk’s Pond magazine, 179–80; and The Niles-Merton Songs, Opus 171/172, 160; official date of his relocation (August 20, 1965), 49; photos of in Life magazine, 126; and the “putting away a hermit” rite, 126; on Reinhardt, 128; relationship with Dom James Fox, 70, 125–26; on solitude, 42, 72–73, 106; spinal fusion surgery of, 65, 70–72; trip to Asia, 187, 188–91; trip to California, 186–87; as unhermitlike, 175–76; vision of what a hermit’s life entailed, 48; visit with Abdeslam, 148–49, 162; visit with Baez and Sandperl, 150–56, 162; visit with Maritain, 142–45; visit with Thich Nhat Hanh, 91–92; visit with Waugh, 86; visits with Niles, 165–66
Merton, Thomas, writings of: articles in magazines, 4; The Ascent to Truth, 35; “Aubade on a Cloudy Morning,” 81; “Blessed Are the Meek: The Roots of Christian Nonviolence,” 157; Bread in the Wilderness, 35; Cables to the Ace, or Familiar Liturgies of Misunderstanding, 137–42, 144, 147–48, 159, 183, 196; “Chant to Be Used in Processions around a Site with Furnaces,” 6, 204n22; commentary on and introduction to Camus’s The Plague, 163; Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, 41, 45; Disputed Questions, 45; Eighteen Poems, 156, 213n6; Emblems of a Season of Fury, 45, 160; Faith and Violence, 45, 147, 163; “First Lesson about Man,” 71; “For My Brother: Reported Missing in Action, 1943,” 23; Gandhi on Non-Violence, 45, 188; The Geography of Lograire, 183; hagiographies on behalf of the Cistercian order, 24; The Last of the Fathers: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and the Encyclical Letter, Doctor Mellifluus, 35, 207n15; “the Menendez file,” 59, 80, 89, 94, 123–24, 129–30; Midsummer Diary, 83, 84, 106–8, 121, 137, 194; mimeographed letters and essays on the issues of war and peace, 45–46 (see also Merton, Thomas, posthumous publications of); Mystics and Zen Masters, 187; “Neurosis in the Monastic Life,” 37, 40, 208n31; New Seeds of Contemplation, 45, 128; “Nhat Hanh Is My Brother,” 91; No Man Is an Island, 35–36; Original Child Bomb, 77; “Original Child Bomb,” 6; Peace in the Post-Christian Era, 45; Praying the Psalms, 68; preface to the Japanese edition of Thoughts in Solitude, 70, 72–73; foreword to Thich Nhat Hanh’s Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire, 147; “The Prospects of Nostradamus,” 107, 137, 216n17; Raids on the Unspeakable, 4, 45, 77, 127, 154; “The Root of War Is Fear,” 45; Seeds of Contemplation, 35, 77; Seeds of Destruction, 45, 182; Selected Poems, 77, 160; The Seven Storey Mountain, 25, 30, 32–33, 34, 86, 96–97; The Sign of Jonas, 35; The Tears of the Blind Lion, 35; Thirty Poems, 77; The Waters of Siloe, 35, 86; The Way of Chuang Tzu (trans.), 188; What Ought I to Do? 127; The Wisdom of the Desert, 48, 77; Zen and the Birds of Appetite, 187. See also Merton, Thomas, posthumous publications of
“Messenger” (Niles), 165
“Midnight Special” (Leadbelly), 55
Midsummer Diary (Merton), 83, 84, 106–8, 137, 194; carbon copy of sent to Laughlin, 121; on “lostness,” 107–8; Merton’s conception of as the final communiqué in his relationship with Margie, 107; Merton’s giving of the manuscript to Margie, 108; sequel to (Retrospect), 109; on “Silver Dagger,” 83, 107; week of composition of (June 17–24, 1966), 106–7
Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare), 89
Miller, Arthur, Death of a Salesman, 31
Miller, Henry, 45; Plexus, 162
“Million Dollar Bash” (Basement Tapes), 171
Milton, John, 159
Mingus, Charles, 178
“Mixed Up Confusion” (Dylan), 56, 211n15
Monasteries: novices in, 23, 26; postulants in, 23, 26; and simple vows, 26; and solemn vows, 23, 26
Monk’s Pond magazine, 179–80; contributors to, 180
Montini, Giovanni, 142, 208n25. See also Pope Paul VI
Morrison, Norman, 93
Moses: in the desert, 20; God’s showing of the Promised Land to, 29
Mott, Michael, The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton, 7, 208n21
“Mr. Tambourine Man” (Dylan), 59, 143, 151, 211n20; Byrds’ version of, 59, 101, 211n20
Muir, Edwin, 130; The Estate of Poetry, 135–36
Music of Big Pink (The Band), 171
“My Back Pages” (Dylan), 57; as Dylan’s valediction to his folk-protest persona, 57
“My Name Is Adolf Eichmann” (Bruce), 6, 204n22
Mystics and Zen Masters (Merton), 187
Myth of Sisyphus, The (Camus), 96, 97
Nashville Skyline (Dylan), 174, 193, 194; Cash’s assessment on the back album cover, 194
Neruda, Pablo, 77
“Neurosis in the Monastic Life” (Merton), 37, 40; posthumous publication of as “The Neurotic Personality in the Monastic Life,” 208n31
Neuwirth, Bobby, 154
New Directions, 77; iconic publications of, 77; publication of Merton’s books, 77
New Seeds of Contemplation (Merton), 45, 128
New York Times, listing of religious books on its best-seller list by, 30, 31, 207n2
Newport Folk Festival (1965), 52–53; Dylan’s performance at, 51, 52–53
“Nhat Hanh Is My Brother” (Merton), 91
Niles, John Jacob, 160–62; on Baez, 165; Baez’s recording of his songs, 165; The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles, 160– 61; “Carol,” 165; “Go ’Way from My Window,” 161, 165; “I Wonder as I Wander,” 161, 162, 165; influence of on younger singers, 161; Merton’s visits with, 165–66; “Messenger,” 165; the mistaking of his compositions for traditional songs by other folklorists, 161; The Niles-Merton Songs, Opus 171/172, 160; performances of, 161; “Responsory (1948),” 165
Niles-Merton Songs, Opus 171/172, The (Niles), 160; Victor Hammer’s portraits of Merton and Niles on the front cover of, 160
Nixon, Richard M., 179
No Man Is an Island (Merton), 35–37; Lewis on, 36
Nogues, Dominique, 34
Northern Ireland, “The Troubles” in, 179
“Nothing Was Delivered” (Basement Tapes), 171; Byrds’ version of, 171
O’Keefe, Georgia, 189
“On a Rainy Afternoon” (Dylan), 114, 218n13
Original Child Bomb (Merton), 77
“Original Child Bomb” (Merton), 6; as an “antipoem,” 6
Orval monastery, 33; Merton on, 33–34; and Orval beer (Bière Trappist—Trappistenbier), 33
Other Side of the Mirror, The: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Film Festival, 1963–1965, DVD (Dylan), 210n2
Our Lady of Gethsemani monastery, 21; daily routine at, 15; the hermitage at, 49–50, 209n25; playing of music in the cow barn at, 100; sign over the front gates of (Pax Intrantibus), 74
Pacem in Terris (“Peace on Earth”) (Pope John XXIII), 46
Palomares Incident, 85
Parra, Nicanor, 77–79, 142, 180; Poems and Antipoems, 77–78
Parsons, Linda, 109
Pasternak, Boris, 184; Doctor Zhivago, 184
Paul Butterfield Blues Band, 52–53, 61
Peace in the Post-Christian Era (Merton), 45
Peloquin, Alexander, 184–85; and Four Freedom Songs, 184–85
Pennebaker, D. A., 114, 169, 174; Dont Look Back, 3, 59, 114, 154, 203n10
Persichetti, Vincent, 101, 153
Peter, Paul and Mary, 56, 113, 174; version of “Blowin’ in the Wind,” 56, 59; version of “Too Much of Nothing,” 171
Phillips, Bernard, 148
Plague, The (Camus), 31; Merton’s commentary on and introduction to, 163
Plexus (H. Miller), 162; tribute to Niles in, 162
Poems and Antipoems (Parra), 77–78
Pollock, Jackson, 31
Pope, Janelle, 165
Pope Francis, 1
Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris (“Peace on Earth”), 46
Pope Paul VI, 142, 208n25; visit with Archbishop Michael Ramsey, 85
Pound, Ezra, 77
Praying the Psalms (Merton), 68; cover of the first edition of, 68
Present Age, The (Kierkegaard), 50–51
Presley, Elvis, 103; first single of, 56
Presse, Alexis, 27
Price, Alan, 59
“Prospects of Nostradamus, The” (Merton), 107, 137, 216n17
“Psychoanalysis and Death of George Gershwin, The: An American Tragedy” (Leffert), 208n23
Psychology of the Criminal Act and Punishment, The (Zilboorg), 37
Pueblo Incident, 179
“Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)” (Basement Tapes), 171; Mann’s version of, 171
Raids on the Unspeakable (Merton), 4, 45, 77, 154; Merton’s Asian-inspired brush drawings in, 4, 127
“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (Dylan), 134, 160
Ramsey, Michael (archbishop) visit with Pope Paul VI, 85
Reinhardt, Ad, 18, 127–28; “black-on-black” paintings of, 127, 128, 133; Black on Black series of, 133, 219n2; death of, 164; on his paintings as icons, 128; New Yorker cartoons of, 127–28
“Responsory (1948)” (Niles), 165
Rice, Ed, 104, 110, 133; request of that Merton write a feature article about Dylan in Jubilee magazine, 110
Ricks, Christopher, 1
Rilke, Rainer Maria, 69, 74; Letters to a Young Poet, 69–70, 76
Rimbaud, Arthur, Season in Hell, 114
Roberts, Jacqueline, 165
Rolling Stone magazine, 172; “Dylan’s Basement Tape Should Be Released,” 172
Rolling Stones, 59
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 21
“Root of War Is Fear, The” (Merton), 45
Rotolo, Suze, 6
Ruether, Rosemary Radford, 162, 186
Rule of Saint Benedict, 17; on the abbot’s treatment of persons in the monastery, 24; on “a spirit of silence,” 17
Samson and Delilah (1948), 31
Sanders, Pharoah, 178
Sandperl, Ira, 152, 186; visit of (with Baez) with Merton, 150–56, 162
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 108; Being and Nothingness, 31
Schatzberg, Jerry, 122
Schickele, Peter, 101, 153; as P.D.Q. Bach, 101
Season in Hell (Rimbaud), 114
Seeds of Contemplation (Merton), 35, 77
Seeds of Destruction (Merton), 45, 182
Seeger, Pete, 3, 52–53; “Turn, Turn, Turn,” 101
Seitz, Ron, 160
Selected Poems (Merton), 77, 160
Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton, The (Mott), 7, 208n21
Seven Storey Mountain, The (Merton), 25, 96–97; acceptance of the manuscript of, 25; advance copy of, 30; British edition of (Elected Silence), 86; and church censors, 25, 30; Dom Frederic Dunne’s influence on, 32–33; original print run of, 30; popularity and success of, 30, 34
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Beatles), 168, 171
Shadows, 54
Shakespeare, William, 80, 106; Midsummer Night’s Dream, 89
Shaw, Mark, Beneath the Mask of Holiness, 7
“She Belongs to Me” (Dylan), 134
Shelton, Robert, 2
Siddartha (Hesse), 77
Siegel, Jules, “Bob Dylan: Well, What Have We Here?” 122
Sigmund Freud: His Exploration of the Mind of Man (Zilboorg), 38
“Sign on the Cross” (Basement Tapes), 171
Sign of Jonas, The (Merton), 35
“Silver Dagger,” Baez’s version of, 81–84, 99, 102, 151; Baez on, 84, 214n20; Dylan on, 83; lyrics of, 82; mention of in Merton’s Midsummer Diary, 83, 107; as Merton and Margie’s “binding song,” 81–84, 102, 109, 154–55
Simic, Charles, 180
Slate, John, 164; death of, 164
Smith, Harry, Anthology of American Folk Music, 55
Smith, Margie, 7, 72–74, 147, 162, 166–67, 186. See also Merton, Thomas, relationship with Margie Smith
Songs of Maldoror (Lautréamont), 114
Sortais, Gabriel, 45
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 151
Spitzer, Mark, 158
Spivey, Victoria, 55
St. Joseph’s Infirmary, 71, 213n23
“St. Louis Blues” (Handy), 103
Stern, Karl, The Flight from Woman, 215n33
Stranger, The (Camus), 99; Mersault in, 99
Styron, William, 179
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” (Dylan), 58, 59
Sufi mystics: and Merton, 148, 187; on “pure nafs,” 2
Sun Ra, 58
Sun Studios, 103
Surrealism, 159
Suzuki, D. T., 187, 188; The Zen Doctrine of No-Mind, 187; Zen and Japanese Culture, 187
Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Byrds), 171
Tarantula (Dylan), 115, 122, 158, 169
Tears of the Blind Lion, The (Merton), 35
“Tears of Rage” (Basement Tapes), 171; Ian and Sylvia’s version of, 171
Technological Society (Ellul), 139
Teresa of Ávila, 69
“That’s Alright, Mama” (Crudup), 56, 211n15; as the only song to have been recorded in common by Elvis, the Beatles, and Dylan, 211n14
Theoria physike, 66
Thich Nhat Hanh, 90–91, 93–94, 188, 193; nomination of for the Nobel Peace Prize (1967), 91, 214n10; on self-immolation, 93–94; Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire, 147; visit with Merton, 91–92
Thich Quang Duc, self-immolation of, 92
Thirty Poems (Merton), 77
“This Wheel’s on Fire” (Basement Tapes), 171; Trinity’s version of, 171
Thomas, Dylan, 54; Collected Poems, 77
Thomas Merton Historical Foundation, historical marker of on the corner of Louisville’s Fourth and Walnut Streets, 41–42, 209n2; inscription on, 42
Thoughts in Solitude (Merton), preface for the Japanese edition of, 70, 72–73
Tillich, Paul, The Courage to Be, 31, 85
Time magazine: Baez as Time magazine’s “Sybil with a Guitar,” 81; “Is God Dead?” issue of, 85
Time Out of Mind (Dylan), 54
Times They Are A-Changin’, The (Dylan), 56, 104; and the “11 Outlined Epitaphs” poems, 134
“Times They Are A-Changin’, The” (Dylan), 1, 56, 151
“Tiny Montgomery” (Basement Tapes), 171
Tom Jones (Fielding), 81
“Tombstone Blues” (Dylan), 99, 104
“Too Much of Nothing” (Basement Tapes), 171; Peter, Paul and Mary’s version of, 171
Trinity, version of “This Wheel’s on Fire,” 171
“Turn, Turn, Turn” (Seeger), Byrds’ version of, 101
Turtles, 57; version of “It Ain’t Me, Babe,” 56
Valens, Richie, 54
Van Doren, Mark, 18–19, 45, 180
Van Ronk, Dave, 161
Vee, Bobby, 54
Via negativa, 128
Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire (Thich Nhat Hanh), 147; Merton’s foreword to, 147
Vietnam War: American casualties in, 178; and antiwar demonstrations in the United States, 85; and the My Lai massacre, 178; and “Rolling Thunder,” 85; and self-immolation as a tool of protest, 92–94
Villon, François, 143
Waddell, Thomas (Father Chrysogonus), 70, 100–102, 110, 153; as a choir monk and later choirmaster of Gethsemani, 70, 81, 101; experimentation with choral pieces in the folk mode, 102; monastic name of (Father Chrysogonus), 100; as a musical composer and scholar, 101; recommendation of music to Merton, 81, 99, 100, 102; and the record collection at the abbey, 102; study of theology in Rome post–Vatican II, 101
Walsh, Daniel, 142
“Was Dylan Riding His Motorcycle?: John Hammond Jr. Speaks” (Hammond Jr.), 217n5
Waters, John, 210n7
Waters, Muddy, 53
Waters, Roger, 171
Waters of Siloe, The (Merton), 35, 86
Watts, Alan, 188
Waugh, Evelyn, 86; Brideshead Revisited, 86, 102; death of, 86; editing of Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain (British edition) and The Waters of Siloe, 86; as Merton’s personal writing coach, 86
Way of Chuang Tzu, The (trans. Merton), 188
Weis, Monica, The Environmental Vision of Thomas Merton, 212n7
Westhoff, Clara, 69
“What Kind of Friend Is This” (Dylan), 114, 218n13
What Ought I to Do? (Merton), 127
Whitman, Walt, 5
Williams, Big Joe, 55
Williams, Robert Lawrence, 184–85; and Four Freedom Songs, 184–85
Williams, Tennessee, 77; The Glass Menagerie, 155–56
Wills, Garry, 31
Wisdom of the Desert, The (Merton), 48, 77
“With God on Our Side” (Dylan), 56
World Council of Churches, 31
World Gone Wrong (Dylan), 211n16
Wouk, Herman, 18
Writings and Drawings (Dylan), 4
Wygal, James, 97, 125; advice of to Merton about Margie, 76, 105–6, 108
Yau, John, 128
“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” (Basement Tapes), 171; Byrds’ version of, 171
Zen and the Birds of Appetite (Merton), 187
Zen Doctrine of No-Mind, The (Suzuki), 187
Zen and Japanese Culture (Suzuki), 187
Zilboorg, Gregory, 37–40; diagnosis of Merton, 38–40, 44, 46; evidence that he misdiagnosed Gershwin’s terminal brain tumor as psychosomatic, 38, 208n23; obituary of, 40; possible misrepresentation of his professional credentials by, 38; The Psychology of the Criminal Act and Punishment, 37; as the psychotherapist of prominent Broadway notables and New York’s left-leaning elite, 37–38; Sigmund Freud: His Exploration of the Mind of Man, 38
Zimmerman, Robert. See Dylan, Bob