Thomas Merton (click here) was born in the village of Prades, Pyrénées-Orientales in southern France in 1915 when the
major European powers were confronting one another on the battlefields
of a war that would alter the course of the 20th Century. Both parents
were artists. Owen Merton, a native of New Zealand, painted landscapes;
Ruth (Jenkins) Merton, also a painter, was an American Quaker from
Douglaston, New York.
In 1916, with no end in sight to the chaos and carnage of The Great War, the Mertons decided to move to he United States where a second child, John Paul, was born. The family remained in Douglaston for five years, until Ruth’s death in 1921 when Merton was barely six years old.
Over the next 15 years, Merton lived a haphazard, nomadic existence. He spent two years in Bermuda, then returned to the home of his maternal grandparents in Douglaston; two years later, in 1925, he was off again with his father, this time to France, living four years in the village of Montauban; then in 1929 he moved to England where, in 1931, his father died.
Thomas remained living in Rutland and after completing his prep school studies in Oakham in 1933, won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge. But a year later, in December of 1934, Thomas’ godfather and guardian, Tom Bennett, ordered him to return to the United States and remain there....
The early 1900s or 20th Century was a time unrest and change. There was the sufferagette movement in Great Britain, the first plastics were invented, Robert Peary was the first to reach the North Pole, the NAACP was founded, Finland gave women the right to vote, Kellogg's start selling corn flakes, Einstein proposes his theory of relativity, the first USA movie theater opens and much more.
The Mertons lived in post civil war America after immigrating from Europe while WWI was promising to make life difficult.
The story telling about Thomas Merton at this time in his life is somewhat varied, but there is a site which offers a vibrant and unstable life. (click here)
I was completely orphaned by the age of sixteen with only one sibling to call a family. He would be ordered to the USA by grandparents who insisted he attend Columbia University in New York. From that time forward the accounting of his life is similar by most accounts.
In 1916, with no end in sight to the chaos and carnage of The Great War, the Mertons decided to move to he United States where a second child, John Paul, was born. The family remained in Douglaston for five years, until Ruth’s death in 1921 when Merton was barely six years old.
Over the next 15 years, Merton lived a haphazard, nomadic existence. He spent two years in Bermuda, then returned to the home of his maternal grandparents in Douglaston; two years later, in 1925, he was off again with his father, this time to France, living four years in the village of Montauban; then in 1929 he moved to England where, in 1931, his father died.
Thomas remained living in Rutland and after completing his prep school studies in Oakham in 1933, won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge. But a year later, in December of 1934, Thomas’ godfather and guardian, Tom Bennett, ordered him to return to the United States and remain there....
The early 1900s or 20th Century was a time unrest and change. There was the sufferagette movement in Great Britain, the first plastics were invented, Robert Peary was the first to reach the North Pole, the NAACP was founded, Finland gave women the right to vote, Kellogg's start selling corn flakes, Einstein proposes his theory of relativity, the first USA movie theater opens and much more.
The Mertons lived in post civil war America after immigrating from Europe while WWI was promising to make life difficult.
The story telling about Thomas Merton at this time in his life is somewhat varied, but there is a site which offers a vibrant and unstable life. (click here)
I was completely orphaned by the age of sixteen with only one sibling to call a family. He would be ordered to the USA by grandparents who insisted he attend Columbia University in New York. From that time forward the accounting of his life is similar by most accounts.
