"He was something of a legendary figure among the old boys of his generation and he was clearly something of a rebel."

That description of Thomas Merton by his English headmaster influenced this captivating introductory look at the monk-writer and his works. Merton scholar William H. Shannon presents Merton's life story "to suggest that this mid-twentieth-century writer can speak meaningfully to women and men now several years into a new century, to develop…some of the themes that make their way through his writings, and to suggest a possible order for reading his books as one enters into the huge library of Mertoniana…."