About Max Ehrmann
Max Ehrmann was an American poet and lawyer mainly renowned for his poem Desiderata he wrote in 1927 and which had a particular destiny. He was born September 26, 1872 in Terre Haute and died September 9, 1945 in the same city.At Harvard he published his first book, A Farrago (1898). He returned to his hometown and worked there as a lawyer for two years. He then worked for several years as an accountant and lawyer at his brother's meatpacking plant in Terre Haute. At the age of 41, Ehrmann became a full-time writer. He wrote more than 20 books, articles for magazines and in 1927 published the Desiderata, which 35 years later would become an important text of the Flower Power Generation.
Desiderata is a poem in English dedicated to the search for happiness in life. It was also published posthumously by Ehrmann's wife in 1948, in a collection entitled Desiderata of Happiness. During the 1960s the was widely circulated without being attributed to Ehrmann, sometimes with the claim that it was found in the Church of St. Paul in Baltimore, Maryland and written in 1692 (the year of the foundation of the church).
Browse all poems and texts published on Max Ehrmann
