Triple biography, told largely through their correspondence, of 3 college friends who ultimately went on to literary fame religious writer Thomas Merton, minimalist poet Robert Lax, and author/photographer/magazine publisher Edward Rice.

The second volume of Thomas Merton's letters is devoted to his correspondence with friends -- relatives and family friends, longtime friends, special friends, young people he regarded as new friends, and circular letters addressed to groups of friends. They range from 1931, ten years before he became a monk, to 1968, the year in which he died at a monastic conference in Thailand.