xt74f47gtp93 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt74f47gtp93/data/mets.xml  Thomas Merton 1961-02-09 This letter is from collection 75m28 Thomas Merton papers. archival material 75m28 English  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Thomas Merton correspondence Letter from Thomas Merton to Victor Hammer, February 9, 1961 text Letter from Thomas Merton to Victor Hammer, February 9, 1961 1961 1961-02-09 2023 true xt74f47gtp93 section xt74f47gtp93 _4__
$7

ABBEY OF GETHSEMANI

TRAPPI ST, KENTUCKY

Feb 9, 1961

Dear Victor:

Here it is. I have done my best to promote useful knowledge. You must now
be loyal to the tradition of caves, and beware of the culture of cities. hddle you
are away I shall seek a small grant of about ten dollars in order to spend a week
doing some murals of my OWn in some of the deeper recesses of our own Kentucky
caves which have so far lacked any form of artistic embellishment. My murals will
be completely abstract, without even the intrusion of an expressionist element:
it will be the emergence of a new cycle of so called "dead pan cave art"
and will be all the more effective because it must be a) painted and b) viewed
in complete obscurity. This will be my protest against the fluorescent lighting
which is currently characteristic of the agora.

I hope I have been literate and have not made so many spelling mistakes as to

prejudice your worthy cause. I got Carolyn's card and am relieved that the
Rovere book was not lost.

When are you coming over again? When do you plan to sail if you get the
grant? If you come in the next couple of months would you want to give a talk to
the group of monks that I referred to? Any time would be good expept from February
15th to 28th. Perhaps the firstvveek in March? I hope we can arrange something.

I want to get this to you as quickly as possible, so I will not delay
any longer. God bless you both:

With cordial good wishes in Christ