BEST-SELLING MONK

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27094, 18 July 1953, Page 3

BEST-SELLING MONK

The Sign of Jonas. By Thomas Merton. 354 pp. Hollis and Carter. The tremendous success of “Elected Silence,” the first book of Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk, was a phenomenon in the post-war American publishing world—a religious book of deep spirituality that became a best seller. It might have been thought that it succeeded because of its novelty, because a world grown used to public relations men, widescale advertising and publicity hunting found a mental refuge in reading the autobiography of a true contemplative. That convenient explanation, however, seems to be only part of the truth. Merton’s later books, almost all on his spiritual life, have been almost equally popular, and some overseas reviewers have been almost ecstatic in their praise of this, his newest. Reading “The Sign of Jonas” makes it easy to understand the popular following which has. so far, sold 900,000 copies in English of the Merton books. This is a more mature work, but it carries the unmistakable ring of'.sincerity, simplicity, and authenticity of its predecessors. Merton is by now a priest in the Trappist Order (he first entered the Order in 1941) and the fascinating . part of this newest biography is an infectious spirit of happiness which pervades almost every page. It may seem strange that a man whose whole life is dedicated to silence, under the most solemn of vows, should be a popular writer, but Merton explains that his superiors have ordered him to continue as a writer—a decision for which thousands of readers are evidently ’grateful. It may seem stranger still that the day-by-day experiences and meditation of a monk in, an isolated Kentucky monastery should have such a public appeal in an age of scepticism; but there it is. and the reader of “The Sign of Jonas” will see why.

Merton’s writings have a special interest in Christchurch, with which his family have had a close connexion, and indeed in “The Sign of Jonas” mention is made of Christmas greetings from, among others, Clare Boothe Luce and “his grandmother in New Zealand.” Merton, whose poems have also been published and are achieving some reputation in the United States, recently became an American citizen.