Like many of the most interesting famous people, Catholic monk, poet and social activist Thomas Merton is one of those about whom informed readers might easily think there is nothing new to say. In “The Monk’s Record Player: Thomas Merton, Bob Dylan, and the Perilous Summer of 1966,” Robert Hudson, a poet and spiritual writer himself, has given us a truly new exploration of Merton with fascinating material that no scholar has yet uncovered.