Desiderata

This popular philosophical statement is neither anonymous nor ancient, having both an author and a fairly recent date. Nonetheless, what it says remains timeless. Illustrated by an award-winning artist/designer, here is a poem that sees clear an eternal truth. Line drawings.

Max Ehrmann was an attorney turned philosopher-poet who live in Terre Haute, Ind. He spent his life wrestling with the realities of making a living and following his personal calling to a life of poetry, literature, and thought. He wrote A Prayer, which became a message of hope for thousands, but he is best known for Desiderata, which he wrote for himself, "because it counsels those virtues I felt myself most in need of." Max included this work as part of a personal Christmas greeting in 1933, and Desiderata's power and appeal have continued to reach out to and significantly affect readers ever since. He died in 1945.