ARCHIVE OF LETTERS AND A PHOTOGRAPH, A TOTAL OF 15 PIECES, TO THE MOTHER OF ETHEL KENNEDY

1949 - 1955. Letter. Very Good to Near Fine. Exceptional archive of 15 pieces including 4 TYPED LETTERS SIGNED from Merton to his typist, Ann Skakel (mother of Ethel Kennedy); a wonderful TYPED LETTER from Merton (signed in type) to his friend and teacher, Donald Walsh; 8 retained TYPED LETTERS from Skakel to Merton; a TYPED LETTER SIGNED from Walsh to Skakel; and a photograph of Merton's ordination annotated on the verso by Walsh. Superb content throughout with Merton's letters, SIGNED as "Father Louis" or "Father M. Louis Merton," containing much discussion of his work, including forwarding the carbon copy of his manuscript of his new book THE ASCENT TO TRUTH (not present here). There are maybe a dozen or so holograph additions by Merton in the letters. Merton's lengthy letter to Walsh discusses more spiritual matters: "The fact that I get scared of Our Lord and have to trust Him blindly about the present and the future is, however, sufficient pledge of what one must expect. So I turn to jelly on the threshold of a terrified love." The 8" x 10" original photograph of Merton's ordination, possibly unique, contains Walsh's detailed notes on the verso identifying those in the photograph and the location-- "the Basilica of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, Trappist, Ky, on Ascension Day, May 26, 1949." Ann Skakel and her husband George were killed in an airplane crash not long after the date of the last letter in this archive. Ethel's devotion to her Catholic religion can be attributed to the faith of her mother.