November 29, 2006
Merton and Friends
Jim Harford
Member of the Old Guard and Author of the Book
Merton and Friends
Minutes of the 11th Meeting of the 65th Year
President Giordmaine opened the 11th Meeting of our 65th Year promptly at 10:15 AM. John Marks’ mellifluous baritone led the estimated 105 members in the Invocation.
Visitors included Millie Harford, son Chris Harford, Liz Morgan, Anne Reeves, Rosemary Blair, Joe Drabek, and both Chris and Liz Rice. Bruno Walmsley did a masterful job of summarizing the previous meeting’s “doubleheader” the two lectures on “Who Owns The Internet,” by Prof. Felton and on the new patent law problems posed by the Internet – this by Prof. Appel.
George Cody then introduced our own Jim Harford who talked about his just published book, “Merton and Friends, A Joint biography of Thomas Merton, Robert Lax, and Edward Rice.
Jim, as we all know, is our resident expert on space travel. He wrote the definitive biography of Korolev who led the USSR effort to beat the US into space. Jim is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, a member of The Royal Aeronautical Society and of the International Academy of Aeronautics.
This summary is really a Review of a Book Review, a challenge I found daunting to say the least. I can only try to convey the essence of what I believe was the heart of Jim’s new book. I have therefore left out some of the many interesting vignettes such as Millie’s and Jim’s visits with Lax in Greece or how Rice’s “Jubilee” provided the impetus that resulted in Millie becoming a certified Montessori teacher and her fourteen years of teaching at Stuart Country Day.
So, what possessed him to write a biography of Thomas Merton and his very different friends, Bob Lax and Ed Rice. Jim, says it was on Millie’s insistence so he would be kept busy. However, it really resulted from, first, the friendship that Jim and Millie developed with Lax while Jim was working as a hired hand writer in France. Lax, in turn, asked Jim to help Ed Rice start a lay Catholic magazine called, “Jubilee.”
But, who are these characters? Thomas Merton, the Cistercian monk who authored “The Seven Storey Mountain” should be known to all of us, but how did
the early Merton, a worldly Protestant educated at Cambridge, Rice a Brooklyn Catholic, and Lax a Jew from Olean, N.Y. become such close friends? All were students at Columbia and were exposed to a fabulous run of professors, and scholars such as Mark Van Doren and Jacques Barzun. The 3 men were influenced by the seemingly unending injustices of the times – The Depression, Hitler, and Stalin, the dust storms and Okies. Merton in particular was turned on by Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and the sacraments of the Catholic Church.
Jim has characterized them as perhaps the earliest “beats.”
But, a very different kind of “beat” generation they were. Rice was godfather to the other two when they converted to Catholicism and the rock on which their friendship stood was their faith in a loving god – not from them the punishing God of The Old Testament.
This belief undergirded “Jubilee” which Rice founded to bring forth a viewpoint different from the 16th and 17th Century Spanish pessimism; rather that “God is your friend,” and it deplored the dogmatism and the many sterile sermons that were the order of the day – and (editorial comment) they still may exist today.
We know a lot about Merton but what of his buddies?
After running Jubilee for 14 years, Rice made his living as a prolific and highly regarded writer. To do his own research, he traveled the world in he 60’s and 70’s, in dangerous areas, but there were evidently some compensations – like 3 high caste Indian beauties. Jim mentioned specifically that he wrote a biography of Captain Sir Richard Burton, a book I personally recommend to you.
Lax was a different character – an “experimental poet.” Jim recited one of his poems that consisted only of the words, “mmmm” and “grrrrr.” And, he wrote a book-length poem about the Christiani Brothers Circus with which he traveled for a year as a clown.
I am afraid that I have failed miserably in trying to tie such remarkably dissimilar men together. But, first all retained that youthful sense of rebellion against injustice and pomposity All exhibited a life-long interest in other faiths and customs. Perhaps, what best described the relationship of the “friends” as I learned from Jim’s captivating talk, was their all coming together at Merton’s ordination at Gethsemani – a converted Protestant, a converted Jew and a Brooklyn Catholic, now three committed to the same faith.
To do this justice, you will need to buy Jim’s book – Thomas Merton and Friends – available at Amazon.com.
Jim followed his talk with fascinating photos of his family of his “friends” plus cartoons and other memorabilia from this trio of exceptionable men. I enjoyed meeting them, if only vicariously.
Respectfully, but inadequately, submitted,
K. Barnhart II
Visitors included Millie Harford, son Chris Harford, Liz Morgan, Anne Reeves, Rosemary Blair, Joe Drabek, and both Chris and Liz Rice. Bruno Walmsley did a masterful job of summarizing the previous meeting’s “doubleheader” the two lectures on “Who Owns The Internet,” by Prof. Felton and on the new patent law problems posed by the Internet – this by Prof. Appel.
George Cody then introduced our own Jim Harford who talked about his just published book, “Merton and Friends, A Joint biography of Thomas Merton, Robert Lax, and Edward Rice.
Jim, as we all know, is our resident expert on space travel. He wrote the definitive biography of Korolev who led the USSR effort to beat the US into space. Jim is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, a member of The Royal Aeronautical Society and of the International Academy of Aeronautics.
This summary is really a Review of a Book Review, a challenge I found daunting to say the least. I can only try to convey the essence of what I believe was the heart of Jim’s new book. I have therefore left out some of the many interesting vignettes such as Millie’s and Jim’s visits with Lax in Greece or how Rice’s “Jubilee” provided the impetus that resulted in Millie becoming a certified Montessori teacher and her fourteen years of teaching at Stuart Country Day.
So, what possessed him to write a biography of Thomas Merton and his very different friends, Bob Lax and Ed Rice. Jim, says it was on Millie’s insistence so he would be kept busy. However, it really resulted from, first, the friendship that Jim and Millie developed with Lax while Jim was working as a hired hand writer in France. Lax, in turn, asked Jim to help Ed Rice start a lay Catholic magazine called, “Jubilee.”
But, who are these characters? Thomas Merton, the Cistercian monk who authored “The Seven Storey Mountain” should be known to all of us, but how did
the early Merton, a worldly Protestant educated at Cambridge, Rice a Brooklyn Catholic, and Lax a Jew from Olean, N.Y. become such close friends? All were students at Columbia and were exposed to a fabulous run of professors, and scholars such as Mark Van Doren and Jacques Barzun. The 3 men were influenced by the seemingly unending injustices of the times – The Depression, Hitler, and Stalin, the dust storms and Okies. Merton in particular was turned on by Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and the sacraments of the Catholic Church.
Jim has characterized them as perhaps the earliest “beats.”
But, a very different kind of “beat” generation they were. Rice was godfather to the other two when they converted to Catholicism and the rock on which their friendship stood was their faith in a loving god – not from them the punishing God of The Old Testament.
This belief undergirded “Jubilee” which Rice founded to bring forth a viewpoint different from the 16th and 17th Century Spanish pessimism; rather that “God is your friend,” and it deplored the dogmatism and the many sterile sermons that were the order of the day – and (editorial comment) they still may exist today.
We know a lot about Merton but what of his buddies?
After running Jubilee for 14 years, Rice made his living as a prolific and highly regarded writer. To do his own research, he traveled the world in he 60’s and 70’s, in dangerous areas, but there were evidently some compensations – like 3 high caste Indian beauties. Jim mentioned specifically that he wrote a biography of Captain Sir Richard Burton, a book I personally recommend to you.
Lax was a different character – an “experimental poet.” Jim recited one of his poems that consisted only of the words, “mmmm” and “grrrrr.” And, he wrote a book-length poem about the Christiani Brothers Circus with which he traveled for a year as a clown.
I am afraid that I have failed miserably in trying to tie such remarkably dissimilar men together. But, first all retained that youthful sense of rebellion against injustice and pomposity All exhibited a life-long interest in other faiths and customs. Perhaps, what best described the relationship of the “friends” as I learned from Jim’s captivating talk, was their all coming together at Merton’s ordination at Gethsemani – a converted Protestant, a converted Jew and a Brooklyn Catholic, now three committed to the same faith.
To do this justice, you will need to buy Jim’s book – Thomas Merton and Friends – available at Amazon.com.
Jim followed his talk with fascinating photos of his family of his “friends” plus cartoons and other memorabilia from this trio of exceptionable men. I enjoyed meeting them, if only vicariously.
Respectfully, but inadequately, submitted,
K. Barnhart II