When The Seven Story Mountain was first published, Merton was hailed as a new, contemporary spiritual voice and became one of the most popular and successful writers and commentators on modern religion and spirituality. But although Merton wrote over forty books on the importance of reflection and prayer in our inner lives, until now we have known very little about Merton's own 'way of prayer'. The distinguished Merton scholar Robert Waldron's new book is the first to fully explore the inner life of perhaps the best-known writer on prayer of the twentieth century. †