September 26, 1872 - Max Ehrmann (Sept 26, 1872 – Sept 9, 1945)

Poet Ehrmann earned acclaim

By Dipa Sarkar

Recently we celebrated the 219th anniversary of the independence of our great nation.

About Independence Day Max Ehrmann wrote, “Let us celebrate this great day. A strong, happy, useful nation is a disciplined nation; disciplined not in the interest of groups but in the interest of all citizens. This is a true democracy.”

What prophetic words uttered by this visionary and not too long ago!

Ehrmann was born in Terre Haute Sept. 26, 1872 to Max Ehrmann and Margaret Barbars Lutz, their fifth and last child.

He graduated from DePauw University and entered post-graduate school of philosophy at Harvard, specializing in law and philosophy. There he met another famous Terre Hautean, Eugene Debs.

Returning to Terre Haute, he worked as Vigo County prosecutor and had to interact with society’s hardest and most callous people. It was a very discouraging time for this would-be poet.

He came down with typhoid fever and was forced to leave his job. During this depressing time he wrote his most admired poem. “A prayer” which begins “Let me do my work each day” and ends “teach me still to be thankful for life…may the evening twilight find me gentle still.”

This poem was actually retrieved from his wastebasket. When it was published it became enormously popular and his name spread around the world

. After working 10 years for his brother, at the age of 40 he retired to devote all his time to writing. He lived at 903 S. Sixth St. for the rest of his life. There he wrote most of his 22 books poems and other literary works.

Ehrmann’s poems, “Desiderata” and “A Prayer” received worldwide acclaim. However, at one time some controversy arose over the authorship of “Desiderata” when its source was erroneously traced to “an anonymous manuscript” dated 1692 found in old St. Paul’s Church in Baltimore, Md. The work was written by Ehrmann in 1926 and was copyrighted in “Terre Haute in 1927.

He did not marry his devoted friend of 40 years, Bertha Scott King, until three months before his death on Sept. 9, 1945 at the age of 72. After his death Mrs. Ehrmann published four books of his later works.

She also edited a book of his poems, his biography and his journal. Most of his original manuscripts and scrapbooks were placed in DePauw archives by his widow.

A bust and selection of framed poetry by max Ehrmann may be seen near the front of the stairs of the lower level of the historical museum at 1411 S. 6th St.