Seven Storey Mountain
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When a fledgling writer published the story of his entry into a Trappist monastery 50 years ago, no one, least of all the book's publishers at Harcourt Brace, imagined it would become a bestseller and one of the most important spiritual works of our time. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of its publication, Harcourt Brace has released a beautiful new edition of Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain, with an introduction by Robert Giroux, its original editor. Book Magazine The re-issue of this ambitious autobiography by the Trappist monk, poet and writer Thomas Merton demonstrates this classic's sustained potency and relevance. The book's essential message, along with serendipitous timing when it was first published (in '48, people were apparently ready to read about conversion), combined to make this Mountain move as a best-seller. Today, it offers readers within a still-fractured society a strong antidote to too-easy new-age spiritualism.The different aspects of Merton's lifehis expatriate artist-parents; intellectual and spiritual connections with St. Augustine, Dante and William Blake; and the encouragement of the fatherly Abbot of the monastery that he joined in 1941set the stage for his performance in the pages of this book. A clear and engaging writer, Merton shows that the glamorous world of 1930s travel, his sudden infusion of Catholic faith and its reinforcement by Trappist asceticism helped reveal God's love for him. What a career that revelation led to: 50 books between 1944 and his death in 1968; 30 more posthumously, most of which are now in print.While resembling other classic "confessions," (Augustine's was the book's model) Merton's story often reads like Jack Kerouac's On the Roadconversion story as page-turner. And the new edition offers one particular elucidation over its predecessor. The book's original editor, Robert Giroux, revisits this edition with a succinct and insightful introductory commentary about Merton's ability in revealing his own journey while making necessary connections for diverse readers.Merton's story (aspects of which he had, in1941, remarked to Giroux he could never dare write about) is a reminder that this solitary poet is cousin to other writersfrom Walt Whitman to Henry David Thoreau to Flannery O'Connor to Walker Percywho speak so well about contemplation in a weary world.Victor A. Kramer
