Since the Pope has made Merton a hot item again…

…I thought some folks might be interested in this blurb from University of Notre Dame Press:

Patrick Samway, S.J., has just published a book with us at the University of Notre Dame Press. Fr. Samway edited and annotated the correspondence between Thomas Merton and Robert Giroux, his long-time editor. Reading their correspondence gives one a window into their personal and professional relationship, one extending from the time of the publication of Merton’s 1948 best-selling spiritual autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, until a few months before Merton’s untimely death in December 1968. As editor-in-chief at Harcourt, Brace & Company and then at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Giroux not only edited twenty-six of Merton’s books but served as an adviser to Merton as he dealt with unexpected problems with his religious superiors at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky, as well as those in France and Italy.

The letters, arranged chronologically, offer invaluable insights into the publishing process that brought some of Merton’s most important writings to his readers. Patrick Samway, S.J., had unparalleled access not only to the materials assembled here but to Giroux’s unpublished talks about Merton, which he uses to his advantage, especially in his beautifully crafted introduction that interweaves the stories of both men with a chronicle of their personal and collaborative relationship. The result is a rich and rewarding volume, which shows how Giroux helped Merton to become one of the greatest spiritual writers of the twentieth century.

Here is the link to the book on their site, where there is an excerpt, more description, etc.