Kindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and Zen

Edward C. Sellner received master and doctoral degrees in theology and spirituality from the University of Notre Dame, and taught at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, for 35 years. He is also a former chemical dependency counselor, helping him to understand the suffering of Kerouac. Sellner's research for this book included traveling to India and Thailand, tracing Merton's first and last pilgrimage to Asia, and visiting the buddhas at Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, where Merton had his last satori experience. He also visited sites associated with Kerouac in San Francisco and Big Sur, providing him with certain awareness overlooked by previous biographers. Sellner is a Fellow at the Oxford Centre of Animal Ethics in Oxford, England and the author of seventeen previous books. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.