DESIDERATA - THE BACKGROUND n. pl. [Latin from desideratus]
Anything desired; that of which the lack is felt; a generally felt and acknowledged want; necessary and requisite.
Here's a short history of the piece, which makes interesting reading:
Every copy of Desiderata claims the original was found in a Baltimore church in 1692. It's comforting to believe that some truths are universal and that the human spirit is unchanging. A poem so relevant in today's world being found centuries ago supports those comforting beliefs.
That it's unsigned makes it more beautiful: one sees these words as the anonymous writer's gift to the world.
Meaningful as the words are, Desiderata's history doesn't live up to the fable built around it. The poem wasn't penned centuries ago, it was written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945). Ehrmann was a lawyer from Indiana. Like most of his writings, Desiderata failed to attract much attention during his life. Three years after his death, his widow had it and some of his other works published.
Confusion over Desiderata's authorship arose in 1956 when a Maryland pastor used the poem in a collection of material for the congregation of Old St. Paul's Church in Baltimore. He was fond of inspirational essays and poems and he often mimeographed the writings he liked, collecting them in booklets, and placing them in pews around the church. The Desiderata booklet was printed on a letterhead which bore the words "Old St. Paul's Church, Baltimore, A.D. 1692" (the year of the church's founding).
A member of the congregation must have liked the poem enough to pass it to a friend. From there it passed through many hands, along the way losing the attribution to Max Ehrmann and gaining - through a muddling of the letterhead's message - the claim that the work had been discovered in Old St. Paul's church in 1692.
The poem then found a foothold in California, where San Francisco's "flower children" embraced it delightedly as a centuries-old affirmation of their 'love and peace' philosophy. From there it spread further, as underground publishers started turning out inexpensive posters.
The piece hit a new level of popularity after a copy was found on Adlai Stevenson's bedside table when he died in 1965. He'd been intending to use the "ancient" poem in his Christmas cards.
A spoken version of Desiderata earned a Grammy award for Les Crane in 1971. Like many others, he'd seen the words on a poster and mistakenly thought them to be in the public domain. That error cost him - he was later forced to share the royalties with the late Ehrmann's family. (Ehrmann's original 1927 copyright was renewed in 1954 by Bertha Ehrmann).
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Anything desired; that of which the lack is felt; a generally felt and acknowledged want; necessary and requisite.
Here's a short history of the piece, which makes interesting reading:
Every copy of Desiderata claims the original was found in a Baltimore church in 1692. It's comforting to believe that some truths are universal and that the human spirit is unchanging. A poem so relevant in today's world being found centuries ago supports those comforting beliefs.
That it's unsigned makes it more beautiful: one sees these words as the anonymous writer's gift to the world.
Meaningful as the words are, Desiderata's history doesn't live up to the fable built around it. The poem wasn't penned centuries ago, it was written in 1927 by Max Ehrmann (1872-1945). Ehrmann was a lawyer from Indiana. Like most of his writings, Desiderata failed to attract much attention during his life. Three years after his death, his widow had it and some of his other works published.
Confusion over Desiderata's authorship arose in 1956 when a Maryland pastor used the poem in a collection of material for the congregation of Old St. Paul's Church in Baltimore. He was fond of inspirational essays and poems and he often mimeographed the writings he liked, collecting them in booklets, and placing them in pews around the church. The Desiderata booklet was printed on a letterhead which bore the words "Old St. Paul's Church, Baltimore, A.D. 1692" (the year of the church's founding).
A member of the congregation must have liked the poem enough to pass it to a friend. From there it passed through many hands, along the way losing the attribution to Max Ehrmann and gaining - through a muddling of the letterhead's message - the claim that the work had been discovered in Old St. Paul's church in 1692.
The poem then found a foothold in California, where San Francisco's "flower children" embraced it delightedly as a centuries-old affirmation of their 'love and peace' philosophy. From there it spread further, as underground publishers started turning out inexpensive posters.
The piece hit a new level of popularity after a copy was found on Adlai Stevenson's bedside table when he died in 1965. He'd been intending to use the "ancient" poem in his Christmas cards.
A spoken version of Desiderata earned a Grammy award for Les Crane in 1971. Like many others, he'd seen the words on a poster and mistakenly thought them to be in the public domain. That error cost him - he was later forced to share the royalties with the late Ehrmann's family. (Ehrmann's original 1927 copyright was renewed in 1954 by Bertha Ehrmann).
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