Bonaventure's College in Olean, New York, and entered the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in rural Kentucky. Upon his conversion, Merton left a promising literary career, resigned his position as a teacher of English literature at St. In The Seven Storey Mountain, Merton reflects on his early life and on the quest for faith in God that led to his conversion to Roman Catholicism at age 23. The 50th-anniversary edition, published in 1998 by Harvest Books, included an introduction by Merton's editor, Robert Giroux, and a note by biographer and Thomas Merton Society founder William Shannon.Īpart from being on the National Review 's list of the 100 best non-fiction books of the century, it was also mentioned in 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century (2000) by William J. The book has remained continuously in print, and has been translated into more than 15 languages. A British edition, edited by Evelyn Waugh, was titled Elected Silence. The original hardcover edition eventually sold over 600,000 copies, and paperback sales exceeded three million by 1984.
By May 1949, 100,000 copies were in print and, according to Time magazine, it was among the best-selling non-fiction books in the country for the year 1949. The first printing was planned for 7,500 copies, but pre-publication sales exceeded 20,000. The Seven Storey Mountain was published in 1948 and was unexpectedly successful. The title refers to the mountain of purgatory from Dante's Purgatorio. Merton finished the book in 1946 at the age of 31, five years after entering Gethsemani Abbey near Bardstown, Kentucky.
The Seven Storey Mountain is the 1948 autobiography of Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk and priest who was a noted author in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.
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