He would later write on Merton’s attitude to the Peace Movement in his book ‘The Root of War is fear’.Īwhile back Jim collected his own thoughts of his life, ‘Writing straight with crooked lines’, written for his grandchildren so that they might know something of their grandfather. I have often wished that we could read Jim’s side of the story. In Merton’s Collected Correspondence there are included a number of letters with Jim. One day whilst he was working with Dorothy Day, she received a letter from Merton which she passed on to Jim for reply. Another correspondent of his was Thomas Merton. Jim’s writing was invigorated and informed by his own participation in the events of his time and by the people he knew. Four years ago he published a memoir of another peace activist, the Jesuit, Daniel Berrigan – ‘At Play in the Lion’s Den’.
Late in the 60s he would serve 13 months in jail for burning draft records in Milwaukee. With the growing impact of the war in Vietnam, he became active in the US Peace movement. He would later write an acclaimed biography of Dorothy Day, ‘All is grace’. Following his reception into the Catholic Church in 1960, he worked with the Catholic Worker Movement in New York City alongside the redoubtable Dorothy Day, editing the movement’s news sheet The Catholic Worker. Jim had a widespread audience through his many books and lecture tours. Little did I know then that we were starting a corresponding friendship that would span nearly 30 years. Later, I e-mailed Jim via his US publisher and he responded. “Will this do?”įor £2 he sold me Jim’s book ‘A pictorial biography of Thomas Merton’ When I got back to the car, I found it had been signed by Jim Forest. Opening the door, I called out to the owner “Have you any books about the American monk, Thomas Merton?” His hand went to the bottom of a stack of books on a nearby table and pulled out a book. Running back to the car late on a Saturday afternoon in a bitter cold January dusk, I came to the bookshop. I first met Jim through a second-hand bookshop in Brighton. Within a few days of each other two resonant voices have been lost, the Christian writer Jim Forest and the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.
Thich Nhat Hanh October 1926 – January 2022
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