The fifth volume of the acclaimed Journals of Thomas Merton documents the most turbulent period of the sixties and concludes with Mertons momentous move to his own hermitage.

The sixties were a time of restlessness, inner turmoil, and exuberance for Merton during which he closely followed the careening development of politifcal and social activism Martin Luther King, Jr., and hte March on Selma, the Catholic Worker Movement, the Vietnam war, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Volume 5 chronicles the approach of Mertons fiftieth birthday and marks his move to Mount Olivet, his hermitage at the Abbey of Gethsemani, where he was finally able to fully embrace the joys and challenges of solitary life: `In the hermitage, one must pray of go to seed. The pretense of prayer will not suffice. Just sitting will not sufficeSolitude puts you with your back to the wall (or your face to it!), and this is good (13 October, 1964).