The Seven Storey Mountain

This article is about Thomas Merton's autobiography. For the rock band, see Seven Storey Mountain.
The Seven Storey Mountain
First edition
AuthorThomas Merton
GenreAutobiography
PublisherHarcourt Brace (1948)
Publication date
October 11, 1948
OCLC385657
Followed bySeeds of Contemplation (1949) [1] 

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. 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 from Dante's Purgatorio.

The Seven Storey Mountain was published in 1948 and was unexpectedly 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 magazine, it was among the best-selling non-fiction books in the country for the year 1949.[1][2] The original hardcover edition eventually sold over 600,000 copies,[3] and paperback sales exceeded three million by 1984.[4] A British edition, edited by Evelyn Waugh, was titled Elected Silence. The book has remained continuously in print, and has been translated into more than 15 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 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.[5]

  1. ^ a b "Religion: The Mountain". Time. April 11, 1949. Archived from the original on December 20, 2010.
  2. ^ "FICTION: 1949 BESTSELLERS: Non Fiction". Time. December 19, 1949. Archived from the original on December 20, 2010.
  3. ^ College Walk Columbia University Magazine
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference n was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Petersen, William J.; Randy Petersen (2000). 100 Christian Books That Changed the Century. F.H. Revell. p. 78. ISBN 0-8007-5735-1.