The Seven Storey Mountain was published by Harcourt, Brace in 1948 and became one of the most surprising bestsellers of the postwar era — selling over 600,000 copies in its first year alone. Thomas Merton, a thirty-three-year-old Trappist monk at the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky, wrote the autobiography of his conversion: from a rootless childhood (born in France, raised between England, France, and America), through dissolute years at Cambridge and Columbia University (drinking, womanizing, intellectual posturing), to his gradual discovery of Catholic faith and his entry into the most austere monastic order in the Church.
The book’s title alludes to Dante’s Purgatorio — the seven-storey mountain of purgation that the soul must climb toward God. Merton’s narrative follows this pattern: each stage of his pre-monastic life is presented as a deeper immersion in spiritual blindness, and his conversion as an ascent toward clarity. The writing is passionate, sometimes overwrought, frequently brilliant — a young man’s book, full of the convert’s fierce certainty and contempt for the world he has left behind.
What made the book extraordinary in 1948 was its audience: postwar America was secular, materialist, triumphant. That hundreds of thousands of readers would devour an account of a man choosing silence, obedience, and poverty suggested a spiritual hunger that the culture’s surface prosperity concealed. The book made Merton famous — a paradox he would struggle with for the rest of his life, since he had entered the monastery precisely to escape the world’s attention.
Collecting The Seven Storey Mountain
First edition (Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1948): Cloth with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $300–$800
- Very good: $100–$300
- Signed copies: $1,000–$3,000
- Later printings and book club editions: $10–$30
Projected values (2026–2036): Strong appreciation. One of the great spiritual autobiographies.
A Monk’s Confession
The Seven Storey Mountain (1948) is Thomas Merton’s autobiography — the story of how a dissolute, intellectual young man (born in France, educated at Cambridge and Columbia) converted to Catholicism and entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani in rural Kentucky. Published by Harcourt, Brace, the book became an unexpected phenomenon, selling 600,000 copies in its first year and remaining continuously in print. Merton’s account of his journey from secular cynicism to monastic silence spoke to a postwar generation searching for meaning beyond materialism. The Harcourt, Brace first edition in dust jacket is the primary collecting target; signed copies are uncommon because Merton rarely left the monastery.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was Thomas Merton? Merton (1915–1968) was a Trappist monk, writer, poet, and social activist — one of the most influential spiritual writers of the twentieth century. He wrote over sixty books on subjects ranging from contemplative prayer to nuclear war to Zen Buddhism. He died in Bangkok at age fifty-three, electrocuted by a faulty electric fan during an interfaith conference.