Remembering Thomas Merton: Robert Hudson
Our host David Dault talks with scholar and author Robert Hudson about the tumultuous final years of Catholic monk Thomas Merton, which he chronicles in his new book, The Monk's Record Player: Thomas Merton, Bob Dylan, and the Perilous Summer of 1966.
The story involves two love affairs - one between Merton and a young nurse, and the other with the music of Bob Dylan. Both deeply affected the course of Merton's life and writing in profound ways.
In this striking parallel biography of two countercultural icons, Robert Hudson plumbs the depths of Dylan’s surprising influence on Merton’s life and writing, recounts each man’s interactions with the woman who linked them together—Joan Baez—and shows how each transcended his immediate troubles and went on to new heights of spiritual and artistic genius. Readers will discover here a riveting story of creativity and crisis, burnout and redemption, in the tumultuous era of 1960s America.
Robert Hudson is a recognized Bob Dylan scholar, a member of the International Thomas Merton Society, and a veteran editor who has worked with a number of best-selling authors, including Philip Yancey, Walter Wangerin Jr., Leonard Sweet, and Lee Strobel. He and his wife, Shelley, play in the old-time string band Gooder'n Grits.
