The Exchange: Something Wanted or Needed

The Fall 1971 issue of this column de scribed a request received in January of that year from Norma Deck of the Racine (Wis consin) Public Library who asked for help in locating the source of a familiar prose poem, "Desiderata," which is sometimes cited as "Found in Old St. Paul's Church, Baltimore, Dated 1692." ("Go placidly among the noise and haste. . . .") Your editor had been curious about the piece too and summarized for "The Exchange" an answer to a similar question re ported in the "Questions and Answers" section of the New York Times Book Review for April ll, 1971: the piece, written by Max Ehrmann in 1922, was included in a booklet compiled by the rector of St. Paul's in 1956. A Times reader speculated that someone who found the booklet reproduced "Desiderata" with the name of the church and the date the parish was founded, thus initiating an error which has persisted for some time.