This is the second installment of the seven volumes of journals of Thomas Merton. Covering a time frame from December 12, 1941, to July 5, 1952, these writings chart the rhythms and routines of his life at Gethsemani in rural Kentucky. Merton is stunned by the success of his autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, and in a revealing moment wonders "if they make it into a movie, will Gary Cooper be the hero?"
The journals convey Merton's heavy workload as a writer, reader, and reviewer along with his constant self-reproach for not living up to his own high standards as a Trappist monk. Again and again, he yearns for more solitude which during some quiet moments in the woods he calls "the garden of Eden." Merton's mystic fervor shines in the last ten pages of these excerpts from his journals.