A Meeting of Angels: The Correspondence of Thomas Merton with Edward Deming & Faith Andrews

In November 1960 the noted scholar of Shaker life and craft, Edward Deming Andrews, wrote to Thomas Merton offering assistance with a book on the religion of the Shakers that he had heard Merton was planning. Though nothing came of that book, the ensuing correspondence between Merton and Andrews, and after Andrews' death in 1964 with his widow and collaborator Faith, itself became a spirited and spiritual examination and celebration of the lives and legacy of the Shakers.

Here for the first time, Dr. Paul M. Pearson introduces and brings together both sides of this correspondence, allowing the reader to delight in both the interplay of ideas and inspiration, and the growth of sincere affection, that occurred between Merton and the Andrews through their shared vocation.

The correspondence is supplemented by a selection of Merton's photographs of the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Kentucky, newly identified with captions supplied by Pleasant Hill Curator Larrie S. Curry. A review of the Andrews' Shaker Furniture by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy concludes the volume. Merton once observed, "The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit on it." To read these letters is to experience a meeting of angels, coming to rest for a moment in the contemplation of the simple, but to this day challenging, gifts of the Shakers.

In A Meeting of Angels Dr. Paul Pearson has made available both sides of the correspondence between Merton and a reknowned authority on the Shakers. Dr. Pearson's brief and very helpful introduction and his judicious use of footnotes display the careful scholarship we are accustomed to expect from him. --William H. Shannon, Founding President of the International Thomas Merton Society

In this fascinating exchange of letters the reader is given an example of Merton's empathy with his correspondents and his great respect for the Shaker tradition which had so many similarities with the best of the Cistercian spirit. How much more is seen when both sides of the correspondence are made available. --Brother Patrick Hart, OCSO