"Between 1962 and 1967, two solitary friends, both contemplatives, engaged in a playful exchange of letters- Thomas Merton from Gethsemani, the Trappist monastery in Kentucky. Bob Lax from self-imposed exile in the Greek islands. The friendship that began between Columbia University undergraduates and flourished for the 27 years of Merton's monkhood has generated more serious correspondence, but this intimate collection was edited by the prolific monk before his accidental death in 1968, in Thailand. The letters are filled with inside jokes, literary amusements, and reminiscences about Columbia. Merton adds Zen drawings: Lax, experimental poems.".--back cover.