24 September, 2001

Max Ehrmann copyright 1927
Some reference books, Desiderata is still sometimes thought to have been
'found' at Old St. Paul's Church in Baltimore and to date back to 1692.
It was actually written by Max Ehrmann and copyrighted by him in 1927,
the copyright was renewed in 1954 by Bertha K. Ehrmann.

This prose poem, originally untitled, was written by Max Ehrmann in Terre Haute, Indiana in the early 1920's. In 1921, Max Ehrmann wrote in his diary:

"I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift--a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods"; the result was Desiderata.

Click on the flags on the left for DESIDERATA in your language.