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 William Shannon.Īpart 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. The book has remained continuously in print, and has been translated into more than 15 languages. A British edition, edited by Evelyn Waugh, was titled Elected Silence.

The original hardcover edition eventually sold over 600,000 copies, and paperback sales exceeded three million by 1984.

By May 1949, 100,000 copies were in print and, according to Time magazine, it was among the best-selling non-fiction books in the country for the year 1949. The first printing was planned for 7,500 copies, but pre-publication sales exceeded 20,000. The Seven Storey Mountain was published in 1948 and was unexpectedly successful. The title refers to the mountain of purgatory from Dante's Purgatorio. Merton finished the book in 1946 at the age of 31, five years after entering Gethsemani Abbey near Bardstown, Kentucky. The autobiography of a young man who led a worldly life and then at the age of 26, entered a Trappist monastery.The Seven Storey Mountain is the 1948 autobiography of Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk and priest who was a noted author in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. And, in the half-century since its original publication, this timeless spiritual tome has been published in over twenty languages and has touched millions of lives. The Seven Storey Mountain has been a favorite of readers ranging from Graham Greene to Claire Booth Luce, Eldridge Cleaver, and Frank McCourt. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, 'the four walls of my new freedom,' Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it. It tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man whose search for peace and faith leads him, at the age of twenty-six, to take vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders-the Trappist monks. This edition contains an introduction by Merton's editor, Robert Giroux, and a note to the reader by biographer William H. A modern-day Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Seven Storey Mountain is one of the most influential religious works of the twentieth century.

The seven story mountain