New First Use of "Serenity Prayer"

[Stephen Goranson]

Thank you Fred! I am still inclined to think Niebuhr's authorship likely (even if his memory years later was imperfect), in part, because this sounds like his writing (and no other plausible candidate has been presented).

This 1933 find adds confirmation that the later-called Serenity Prayer actually, early on, mentioned courage before serenity.

This 1933 find adds confirmation that June Purcell Guild was likely quoting from the prayer in 1934 Sewanee Review 42 no. 3 (1934) 398: "North or South, not all have 'serenity to accept what cannot be helped.'"

It may be worth mentioning that Ms Guild was a social worker, and resided in Richmond VA, so may have been in the 1933 YWCA audience.

Stephen Goranson
www.duke.edu/~goranson
________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Shapiro, Fred [fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU]
Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2012 11:04 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: [ADS-L] New First Use of "Serenity Prayer"

I don't have time now to type a complete and fully thought-out posting, but I wanted to record that, by searching Genealogy Bank, I have pushed back the "Serenity Prayer" another three years.  In the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Mar. 21, 1933, Mrs. Harrie R. Chamberlin, national president of the Y.W.C.A., is quoted as follows:

"In conclusion, she quoted the prayer which she said expressed the whole aim of the Y. W. C. A.: 'O God, give us courage to change the things that must be altered; serenity to accept what cannot be helped, and insight to know the one from the other.'"

Interestingly, the same newspaper four days later quotes Mrs. Lenore Stone Meffley speaking to the Family Service Society's annual meeting:

"courage to change what should be altered, serenity to accept what cannot be altered and insight to know the one from the other"

Those familiar with the Serenity Prayer origin controversy will realize that these discoveries do not by any means disprove Reinhold Niebuhr's origination of the S.P., as Niebuhr could well have written it before 1933.  I do think, however, that the further back in time I push documentation of the prayer without reference to Niebuhr, the less probable the widely accepted account of Niebuhr's coinage becomes.  The New York Times will not be interested in writing a third account of the controversy, I am sure, but I will probably write this up in the Yale Alumni Magazine.

Fred Shapiro
Editor
YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS (Yale University Press)

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