The Thomas Merton Archives at St. Bonaventure University
Fitzgerald File
[Manuscript/Typescript]
(St. Bonaventure University ms.58)
385 leaves : ill. ; 28 x 21.5 cm.
Unlined, loose-leaf notebook paper.
Provenance: Given to Richard F. Fitzgerald (a seminarian at the time) when Merton was preparing to enter the Trappist Order in December of 1941. Fr. Fitzgerald sent the text to Fr. Irenaeus Herscher in 1974, giving it in memory of Fr. Callistus Smith, OFM, and Fr. Philotheus Boehner, OFM, both of whom he says had a major influence on his life.
Contents:
Leaves 1-40: Untitled typescript, with many manuscript corrections. Very similar in appearance to St. Bonaventure University ms.61 (The Labyrinth). Various headings crossed out or written in throughout, along with some section numbers. Leaf 36 has in center of the page the title, The Straits of Dover. Leaves 24-35 have typed numbers 43-51 and 60-62. Leaves 37-40 have typed numbers 143-146.
Leaves 41-42 (both sides): Manuscript notes on Grey Eminence; A Study in Religion and Politics / by Aldous Huxley (1941).
Leaves 43-47: Line drawings in ink (5).
Leaves 48-51: Typescript, carbon-copy of letter from Merton to Baroness Catherine de Hueck. Written from St. Bonaventure, NY, and dated October 6, 1941.
Leaves 52-58: Line drawings in ink and pencil (7).
Leaves 59-66: Untitled typescript, carbon-copy essay on money and goodness.
Begins: A man makes a lot of money in a factory …
Ends: … a city on a mountain cannot be hid.
Leaves 67-134: Typescript Journal, Spring 1940.
Subject: Merton’s trip to Miami and Cuba.
Notes: This is not what is transcribed in "Cuban Interlude" in Run to the Mountain (1995), rather the material transcribed there would seem to be the basis for both this typescript journal and the "Cuba" section of The Secular Journal (1959).
Leaves 135-142: Typescript , carbon-copy journal reflection dated 10/23/41 concerning Christians' indifference to suffering.
Leaves 143-152: Typescript, carbon-copy essay entitled, Vocations to the Lay Apostolate. Has Typescript signature reading: Thomas James Merton.
Leaves 153-162: Untitled typescript, carbon-copy review article concerning After Many a Summer Dies the Swan by Aldous Huxley (1939). A revised version of this was later published under the title "Huxley’s Pantheon" in The Catholic World (Nov. 1940), which was reprinted in The Literary Essays of Thomas Merton (1981).
Leaves 163-169: Typescript journal fragment, probably from July, 1941.
Leaves 170-225: The Man in the Sycamore Tree, novel.
Typescript with some manuscript corrections.
Leaf 226: Blank.
Leaves 227-340: Manuscript notes on The Divine Comedy of Dante.
Leaf 341: Untitled typescript poem with manuscript corrections.
Begins: When wind and winter turn …
Ends: … when it is full of sun.
Leaf 342: Drawing, using words to form the figure (1).
Leaf 343: Song for Our Lady of Cobre.
Typescript poem.
Edition: Collected Poems (1977) p.29-30.
Leaf 344: Drawing, using words to form the figure (1).
Leaf 345: Death
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.38-39.
Leaf 346: Mens Sana in Corpore Sano, Macronic Lyric
Typescript, carbon-copy poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Leaf 347: Journal fragment. Typescript probably from July, 1941.
Leaf 348: Drawing, using words to form the figure (1).
Leaf 349: Ohio River: Louisville
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.79-80.
Leaves 350-353: Manuscript notes of Dante and the Franciscans.
Leaves 354-373: Drawings (20).
Leaf 374: Evening
Typescript poem with typed signature.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.41-42.
Leaf 375: The Philosophers
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.3.
Leaf 376: Untitled typescript poem.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.34. Entitled: Poem.
Leaf 377: Adriadne at the Labyrinth
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.48-49.
Leaf 378: Aubade: Harlem (ForBaroness C. de Hueck)
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.82-83.
Leaf 379: The House of Caiaphas
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.81-82.
(see leaf 383 below)
Leaf 380: The Man in the Wind
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.62-63.
Leaf 381: Prophet
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.28-29.
Leaf 382: Song
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.67-68.
Leaf 383: The House of Caiaphas
Typescript poem (see leaf 379 above).
Leaf 384: Ash Wednesday
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Edition: Collected Poems (1979) p.67.
Leaf 385: Song: Conga
Typescript poem with typed signature. Completed at St. Bonaventure College.
Described by PJS
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