Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk in the Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani near Bardstown, Kentucky. He has been revered throughout the world for the depth and profundity of his thoughts on religion, reflection, and the world's possibilities since his bestselling The Seven Storey Mountain was published in 1948. His other works include The Sign of Jonas, New Seeds of Contemplation, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, The Way of Chuang Tza, and Mystics and Zen Masters.