About Merton Secondary Sources 1945-2000
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about Merton Secondary Sources 1945-2000 A Bibliographic Workbook Featuring: Books and Reviews Articles and Essays Theses and Dissertations News Stories and Interviews Poetry, Arts, Media ... Marquita E. Breit Patricia A. Burton Paul M. Pearson for Robert E. Daggy the silent partner… a publication of: The Thomas Merton Center Bellarmine University 2001 Newburg Road Louisville, Kentucky 40205 (502)-272-8177 FAX:(502)-272-8452 [email protected] For copies enquire at the above address. Purchase available on the web site http://www.merton.org/ © 2002 by Marquita E. Breit, Patricia A. Burton, Paul M. Pearson Introduction When Marquita Breit and Robert Daggy published their landmark Comprehensive Bibliography of Thomas Merton in 1986, it might have been argued that the field of Merton studies was beginning to slow down. Most of the works which had been planned by Merton himself had been published, and his friends had gathered together the majority of the unpublished essays and seen them into print in book form. A five-volume series of Merton’s letters had begun publication in 1985, and the long-awaited official biography by Michael Mott had appeared in 1984, garnering great attention. Possible publication of Merton’s private journals could only begin 25 years after his death, and in 1986 that date was still years away. Now another 16 years has passed since the Comprehensive Bibliography, and Merton scholars, readers and fans can be assured that Merton studies did not fade into history. In fact, the Merton Seasonal waxed prosperous, still publishing an extensive bibliography by and about Merton in every issue (providing a major source for this bibliography). A group of Merton scholars got together and founded the Merton Annual to accomodate longer pieces about Merton, and this publication recently saw its 14th edition. With the encouragement of the International Thomas Merton Society, societies have been formed in Great Britain and several other countries, and these gave rise to their own publication efforts (notably the British Association’s Merton Journal and series of Conference Papers.) Merton’s major books continue to be in print, some of them having acquired contemporary introductions for a new generation of readers. Publication of Merton’s journals in the 1990's has provoked another wave of book reviews and scholarship. Most tellingly for scholars, the writing of theses and dissertations on Merton continues unabated. And each year, more books about Merton are published. In this situation, the need for an updated Merton bibliography is extreme. One of the difficulties is that Breit and Daggy (1986) is long out of print and unobtainable even on the secondary market. It did not seem wise simply to supplement it, and there were difficulties which came perhaps because its editors could not have anticipated what Robert Daggy called “the continuing tsunami” of Merton publication. The current work is made possible by the funding and support of the Merton Foundation, under the umbrella of a modest effort called “The Bibliography Project,” whose main aim is to clear the backlog and make comprehensive, reasonably up-to-date bibliographies available, on a modular basis. Work is also under way to build data bases to accumulate new items as they arise. The editors hope to enlist the help of scholars or readers who know of any item that has been missed; hence the subtitle “A Workbook.” Our research this past summer in extensive electronic collections showed us only that there is no collection anywhere which lists everything. So we end this introduction with an appeal: please help us make this the most complete listing possible by informing the editors of anything left out (contact names and addresses are listed on the back of the title page.) We also welcome comments, especially in the difficult task of classifying and presenting all these works. Classification and Indexing: A Map of the Field With thousands of items spanning more than 50 years on hand, the editors had to introduce some principles of organization, and did so by subdividing the bibliography into sections which did not exist in Breit and Daggy. Classification also allows the bibliography to serve as a map or portrait of the field to date. The end-users we had in mind are various, running the gamut from scholars who have devoted much time and work to the field and now need to assess it, to the hoped-for “next generation” of new Merton students trying to get the lie of the land, to general readers with questions on individual subjects. In addition to the classifications listed in the Table of Contents, there is a “back door” in the form of an extensive Index of names and titles. Titles add a difficulty: a traffic jam around the words “Merton” and “Thomas.” It is suggested that readers might benefit by browsing these sections in order to see the enormous variety and scope the titles imply. Of particular interest is the item “Merton and” which connects him to other people, writers old and new, historical figures, friends dead or alive. Some basic indexing has also been done by subject and theme (subject entries appear in capital letters). Some topics appear to have been very thoroughly covered (see for example “SELF,” which covers the “true self-false self” theme in Merton). The Bibliography and Index may help identify new areas to be tackled. Merton’s works are listed by title throughout the Index, and there are some categories like “POETRY-Merton’s” which treat his work generically. Introduction General Conditions There had to be some limitations in order that publication could be achieved in a timely manner. Briefly, the general ones are these: This bibliography covers English only. Nearly 600 additional items have been collected in a data base, in many languages other than English. It seemed inadequate to simply sprinkle these among the nearly 8,000 items printed here. It is our hope in future to enlist speakers of the different languages, preferably people who live in the countries of publication and can undertake research there, so that language resources can be built up for students in those countries. This is not a “numbered” bibliography but rather a sourced one. Each entry has a code in square brackets at the end, indicating its origin. Individual authors’ works are listed under their names by date rather than by title in the various sections. It is now possible to see the fruits of some long careers in Merton studies, and with a half-century time span to consider, date order seems the most practical. The list covers print only: electronic titles are not listed here (that is, essays published on the Internet). These are still few enough that links to them may easily be found on the Merton Center web site. A sample of Media items is given (audio and video cassettes). In this phase, however, the main objective was to list print resources as fully as possible. General Results Two main sources supplied the material: substantial parts of sections 4 and 6 of Breit and Daggy, and the Merton Seasonal running bibliography from 1986 to the end of 2000. Included here also is Paul Pearson’s list of Theses and Dissertations, in a new historical arrangement. A thorough search was done using the electronic resources at Bellarmine University and the extensive collection of “e-indexes” in the University of Toronto Library system (see list of Sources and Abbreviations on page vi.) Older print indexes were also consulted in several libraries. The data and charts on the facing page indicate approximate numbers taken from a data base used to build the bibliography, and do not reflect exact numbers in the printed bibliography. The charts give an idea of the relative sizes of the basic components. The most difficult problem was book reviews, which outnumber everything else (for good reason, in the presence of so many books by and about Merton). They are listed here in two different ways, by book and by author (in a section of their own called “Reviewers”). Thus a true count of the total number of items in the printed bibliography may be nearer to 8,000. Another difficulty was the degree to which items are “about Merton.” There is a wide spectrum of publication in the Merton Seasonal and Merton Annual, where works are listed and reviewed if they contain subjects appealing to Merton’s readers, like spirituality and monastic life. Virtually any work about 20th century monasticism has to mention (and usually quote) Merton. The choice of what to put in a bibliography strictly “about Merton” is sometimes difficult to make, and we hope that readers will help us “build the workbook” in this regard. The order in which items are presented in the Bibliography starts with books, parts of books and categories related to books. The second part, starting with Articles and Essays, deals with “non-book” items. iv Sources Sources of Bibliographic Entries Seasonal 2,544 Breit and Daggy 2,227 Additions* 15.0% Additions* 843 Total 5,614 Seasonal 45.3% Seasonal Breit and Daggy Search Additions 630 Additions* Pearson Theses list 213 *Total Additions 843 Breit and Daggy 39.7% Types Pieces about Merton by Type Reviews 2,404 Essays 1,700 Poetry & Arts 5.3% Theses 3.8% News* 671 Books & Book Parts Books & Book Parts 327 5.8% Reviews Essays Poetry & Arts 299 News* Reviews News* Theses 213 12.0% 42.8% Books & Book Parts Total 5,614 Poetry & Arts Theses *News includes Essays 30.3% Interviews and Media items The Merton Data Mountain Number of Pieces by Decade 1940's 141 2,000 1950's 348 1960's 450 1,500 1970's 878 1980's 1,790 1,000 1990's 1,861 500 Total 5,468 0 Year 2000 144 1940's 1950's 1960's 1970's 1980's 1990's Steadily rising to the end of the 60's, the amount of new material roughly doubled in the 70's and again in the 80's, before levelling off in the 90's (although still on the rise).