"But I don't think that in loving or in drinking beer I am at all untrue to myself and to what God wills for me - except in the details."
I was born in France in 1915, and then went to private school in England and then to Cambridge. Both of my parents died while I was young, and I moved to my grandparents' house in the US to attend Columbia University in New York City. I loved academia and completed a thesis on William Blake, who remained a lifelong influence. I loved the world, drank, wrote for a campus magazine, and didn't fare too badly with the ladies.
At the same time, I felt called to a greater level of holiness in my life, and I converted to Catholicism in my early 20s. This powerful experience is described in my autobiography, Seven Storey Mountain. I explored paths to religious life, but was turned down at first because of the indiscretions of my past. In December 1941, at the age of 26, I resigned my teaching post at Bonaventure College and journeyed to the Abbey of Gethsemani, near Louisville, Kentucky. They accepted my application to become a Trappist monk.
In addition to my service as a monk, I wrote more than 50 books, 2000 poems, and numerous essays, reviews, and lectures. I was fascinated with Eastern mysticism and Zen thought, while remaining a devout Catholic, and I was a firm advocate for social justice and racial and economic equality - all from behind the monastery walls. I died suddenly in 1968.
