Thomas Merton was born on January 31, 1915, in France to his parents, who were artists. His father was from New Zealand, and his mother was from the United States, and given their worldliness, Merton was brought up in an open-minded, secular environment. Tragically, his mother died of stomach cancer when he was young, and his only memories of her as presented in the book were how serious and pale she seemed. However, he discovered a new version of his mother through the journal she left behind and the stories others told him about her. His father took him on his travels, and Merton lived a unique childhood, straddling many worlds, from the stuffy preparatory schools of France to the United Kingdom to the streets of New York and beyond. He spent much of his early childhood in Queens, New York as World War I broke out in Europe, and his family left France. There, his younger brother, John Paul, was born. John Paul later died during Merton’s young adulthood in World War II. Long before he lost his brother, Merton lost himself or at least realized how far he had to go to find himself.

In terms of his educational career, after stints at schools and being shuffled around during his father’s travels, Merton attended Clare College in Cambridge and transferred to Columbia University in New York, from which he graduated in 1938 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.