The Seven Storey Mountain
First edition
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| Author | Thomas Merton |
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| Genre | Autobiography |
| Publisher | Harcourt Brace (1948) |
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Publication date
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October 11, 1948 |
| OCLC | 385657 |
| Followed by | Seeds of Contemplation (1949) |
The Seven Storey Mountain is the 1948 autobiography of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and a noted author of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Merton finished the book in 1946 at the age of 31, five years after entering Gethsemani Abbey near Bardstown, Kentucky. The title refers to the mountain of Purgatory in Dante's The Divine Comedy.
The Seven Storey Mountain was published in 1948 and was surprisingly successful. The first printing was planned for 7,500 copies, but pre-publication sales exceeded 20,000. By May 1949, 100,000 copies were in print and, according to TIME, it was among the best-selling non-fiction books in the country for the year 1949. The original hardcover edition eventually sold over 600,000 copies, and paperback sales exceed three million by 1984. The book has remained continuously in print, and has been translated into more than fifteen languages. 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, Fr. William Shannon.
Apart 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. Petersen.
In The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas 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. Upon his conversion, Merton left a promising literary career, resigned his position as a teacher of English literature at St. Bonaventure's College in Olean, New York, and entered The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in rural Kentucky. Describing his entry, Merton writes, "Brother Matthew locked the gate behind me, and I was enclosed in the four walls of my new freedom." Later, Dom Frederic Dunne, the abbot at the Abbey, who had received him as a novice, suggested that Merton write out his life story, which he reluctantly began, but once he did, it started "pouring out". Soon he was filling up his journals with the work that led to the book which Time Magazine later described as having "...redefined the image of monasticism and made the concept of saintliness accessible to moderns."
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