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On 10 December 1941 a 26-year-old Columbia graduate named Thomas Merton arrived at the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery in Kentucky, to become a monk. Seven years later his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, had sold more than 150,000 copies, and the man who had entered a monastery of silence was one of the best-known Catholic writers in America. He went on to write more than 50 books in 27 years: on prayer, solitude, war, race, and the common ground between Christian monks and Zen and Tibetan Buddhists. He died near Bangkok on 10 December 1968, 27 years to the day after he entered Gethsemani. This guide covers his 12 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 12 key books · 1948–1973 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Thomas Merton’s best-known book is The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), the autobiography of his conversion and entry into a Trappist monastery. His other key books include New Seeds of Contemplation (1961), Thoughts in Solitude (1958) and Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1966). Start with The Seven Storey Mountain; below you will find all 12 key books in order and a reading path through the rest.
Where to Start with Thomas Merton
If you want his life story and the book that made him famous
→ The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) — the 1948 autobiography.
If you want his core teaching on prayer
→ New Seeds of Contemplation (1961) — his own revision of Seeds of Contemplation.
If you want something short to read slowly
→ Thoughts in Solitude (1958).
If you want the later, outward-looking Merton
→ Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1966) — notebooks on war, race and the world beyond the monastery.
12 Thomas Merton Books, in Order
The Seven Storey Mountain
Merton’s account of his first 26 years: a childhood in France, the United States and England, a restless spell at Cambridge, student life at Columbia, his reception into the Catholic Church in 1938 and his entry into Gethsemani in 1941. The title comes from the mountain of Purgatory in Dante. Published in 1948, it had sold more than 150,000 copies by 1949.
Seeds of Contemplation
A book of short chapters on the contemplative life: what prayer is, the false self and the true self, solitude and the presence of God. It was published in 1949, the year he was ordained a priest. He later reworked it thoroughly as New Seeds of Contemplation.
The Sign of Jonas
Selections from his journal of the years leading up to and following his ordination, written inside Gethsemani. It shows the daily life of the monastery and Merton’s struggle between his vocation as a monk and his work as a writer.
No Man Is an Island
Essays on the spiritual life: among their subjects are hope, conscience, vocation, mercy and silence. The title is taken from John Donne. It was published in 1955, the year he became Master of Novices at Gethsemani.
Thoughts in Solitude
A short book of meditations on solitude and the inner life. It contains the prayer that begins “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going”, one of the most widely reprinted passages he wrote.
The Wisdom of the Desert
Merton’s selection and translation of sayings of the Desert Fathers, the Christian hermits who lived in the deserts of Egypt from the fourth century, with a long introduction on why their way of life still matters.
New Seeds of Contemplation
A thorough revision of Seeds of Contemplation written twelve years later. Merton expanded the book and widened its outlook beyond the monastery. It is the version most often recommended today.
The Way of Chuang Tzu
Merton’s free renderings of passages from Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi), the Chinese Taoist classic. He worked from existing translations rather than from the Chinese. It was published in 1965, the year he moved into a hermitage on the monastery grounds.
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
Reflections drawn from his notebooks on war, race, technology, the Church and his reading. It contains his account of the moment on 18 March 1958 at the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Louisville when he felt he loved all the people around him and could no longer see himself as separate from them.
Raids on the Unspeakable
A collection of essays and prose pieces from the 1960s, among them “Rain and the Rhinoceros” and “A Devout Meditation in Memory of Adolf Eichmann”, which takes on the sanity of a world capable of mass murder and nuclear war.
Zen and the Birds of Appetite
Essays on Zen Buddhism and its relation to Christian contemplation, published in 1968, the year of his death. It includes his exchange with the Japanese Zen scholar D. T. Suzuki.
The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton
The notebooks from his journey through India, Sri Lanka and Thailand in late 1968, published after his death. They record his three meetings with the Dalai Lama, his meeting with the Tibetan master Chatral Rinpoche, and end shortly before he died near Bangkok.
In What Order to Read Thomas Merton
None of Merton’s books depends on another, but publication order shows how he changed. The books of the late 1940s and 1950s are written from inside the monastery and for readers drawn to it. From about 1960 he turns outward, to the Desert Fathers, Taoism and Zen, and to nuclear war, civil rights and Vietnam.
If you read only one spiritual book, read New Seeds of Contemplation rather than the 1949 Seeds: it is Merton’s own second, broader version. Read The Asian Journal last, since it ends where his life did.
A reading path
1. The Seven Storey Mountain (1948)
2. Thoughts in Solitude (1958)
3. New Seeds of Contemplation (1961)
4. Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1966)
5. The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton (1973)
Everything Else Thomas Merton Published
Beyond the 12 key books: 20 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Poetry
5
5 books · 1944–1977
- 1944Thirty Poemshis first book, published the year he took his first vows
- 1946A Man in the Divided Seapoems
- 1949The Tears of the Blind Lionspoems
- 1968Cables to the Acea late long poem
- 1977The Collected Poems of Thomas Mertonpublished after his death
Monastic history and spirituality
6
6 books · 1949–1969
- 1949The Waters of Siloea history of the Trappists
- 1951The Ascent to Truthon mystical theology
- 1957The Silent Lifeon the monastic orders
- 1960Disputed Questionsessays
- 1967Mystics and Zen Mastersessays on Christian and Asian contemplatives
- 1969Contemplative Prayerpublished after his death
War, peace and society
5
5 books · 1964–2006
- 1964Seeds of Destructionessays on race and peace
- 1965Gandhi on Non-Violencehis selection from Gandhi
- 1968Faith and Violenceessays
- 2004Peace in the Post-Christian Erathe book he was forbidden to publish in 1962
- 2006The Cold War Lettershis privately circulated letters of 1961–1962
Journals and letters
4
4 books · 1959–1997
- 1959The Secular Journal of Thomas Mertonhis journal from before Gethsemani
- 1985The Hidden Ground of Lovethe first volume of his letters
- 1995Run to the Mountainthe first of seven volumes of his complete journals (1995–1998)
- 1997Learning to Lovethe journal volume covering 1966–1967
The years · 1915–1968
Quick facts about Thomas Merton
- Known for
- Thomas Merton is known as the Trappist monk whose autobiography made monastic life a bestseller subject, and who later became a leading Catholic voice on contemplation, peace and dialogue with Buddhism.
- 1915
- Born in Prades, France
- 1941
- Enters the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky
- 1958
- Fourth and Walnut, Louisville
- 1968
- Dies near Bangkok, Thailand
- Born
- 31 January 1915, Prades, France; his parents were the New Zealand painter Owen Merton and the American artist Ruth Jenkins
- Died
- 10 December 1968, Samut Prakan, near Bangkok, Thailand
- Education
- Clare College, Cambridge (1933–1934); Columbia University, BA 1938, MA 1939
- Monastic life
- Trappist monk at Gethsemani from 1941, as Father M. Louis; ordained a priest in 1949
- Hermitage
- Lived as a hermit on the monastery grounds from 1965 to 1968
- Buried
- Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, Kentucky
The red mark is 1948: The Seven Storey Mountain, the autobiography that made him famous.
How Thomas Merton Writes: A Monk Who Kept Writing
Merton wrote in the first person almost from the start. The Seven Storey Mountain tells his conversion as a story, with people, places and his own mistakes, rather than as an argument. His journals, which he kept for most of his adult life and which run to seven published volumes, are the raw material for much of his other work.
His spiritual books are built from short sections: a paragraph or two on one idea, such as the false self or the meaning of silence, then the next. He also revised himself in public. New Seeds of Contemplation (1961) is his rewrite of a book he had published twelve years earlier, and the new version speaks to readers far outside the monastery.
From the late 1950s he wrote as much about the world as about the cloister: nuclear war, civil rights, Vietnam. In 1962 his abbot general ordered him to stop writing about nuclear war, and he circulated his work privately instead. In his last years he read widely in Taoism and Zen and corresponded with D. T. Suzuki and, in 1966, met Thich Nhat Hanh at Gethsemani.
Frequently asked questions about Thomas Merton’s books
How many books has Thomas Merton written?
More than 50 in his lifetime, and many more published after his death, including his journals and letters. This page covers 12 key books, from The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) to The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton (1973), with the rest listed below them.
What are Thomas Merton’s books in order?
The key books in order: The Seven Storey Mountain (1948), Seeds of Contemplation (1949), The Sign of Jonas (1953), No Man Is an Island (1955), Thoughts in Solitude (1958), The Wisdom of the Desert (1960), New Seeds of Contemplation (1961), The Way of Chuang Tzu (1965), Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1966), Raids on the Unspeakable (1966), Zen and the Birds of Appetite (1968) and The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton (1973).
Where should I start with Thomas Merton?
With The Seven Storey Mountain, his autobiography, which tells how he came to enter Gethsemani. If you want his teaching on prayer rather than his life, start with New Seeds of Contemplation; for something short, Thoughts in Solitude.
What is Thomas Merton’s most famous book?
The Seven Storey Mountain (1948). It had sold more than 150,000 copies by 1949 and remains the book he is best known for.
How did Thomas Merton die?
He died on 10 December 1968 at a retreat centre in Samut Prakan, near Bangkok, where he was attending a conference of monks. For decades the accepted account was that he was electrocuted by a faulty fan after a shower. No autopsy was performed, and Thai police records give heart failure as the cause. In 2018 David Martin and Hugh Turley, authors of The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton, argued that he was killed; this view is disputed and has not been proven.
Was Thomas Merton silenced by the Church?
On one subject, for a time. In 1962 the abbot general of his order, Dom Gabriel Sortais, ordered him to stop writing about nuclear war. Merton obeyed in public but circulated his writing privately, including the Cold War Letters. His banned book, Peace in the Post-Christian Era, was published in full in 2004.
Why were Thomas Merton’s journals published so late?
He asked that his journals and letters not be published until 25 years after his death. They appeared in seven volumes between 1995 and 1998. Learning to Love (1997) covers 1966, when, recovering from back surgery in a Louisville hospital, he fell in love with a student nurse he calls “M.”; his abbot told him to end the relationship.
Did Thomas Merton meet Thich Nhat Hanh and the Dalai Lama?
Yes. Thich Nhat Hanh visited him at Gethsemani on 28 May 1966, after which Merton wrote the essay “Nhat Hanh Is My Brother”. In India in late 1968 he met the Dalai Lama three times, as recorded in The Asian Journal.
Why did Pope Francis mention Thomas Merton?
In his address to the US Congress on 24 September 2015, Pope Francis named Merton as one of four great Americans, with Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and Dorothy Day, and called him “above all a man of prayer”.
Has Thomas Merton’s work been adapted?
None of his books has been filmed directly. His life is the subject of Charles L. Mee’s play The Glory of the World, and in Paul Schrader’s film First Reformed (2017) Ethan Hawke’s character is shaped by reading Merton.
Footnotes
- Thomas Merton — Wikipedia
- Chronology — The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University
- Silenced Monk — America, 2006
- Thich Nhat Hanh and Thomas Merton — America, 2022
- Did the CIA kill vocal war critic Thomas Merton? — The Irish Times, 2018
- Fourth and Walnut, from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander — Oblate School of Theology
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”
— Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1966)
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