Serenity Prayer in Yale Alumni Magazine

[Marc Velasco]

Wild guess: women + AA => Women's Christian Temperance Union ?

On Sun, Jul 13, 2008 at 11:09 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Serenity Prayer in Yale Alumni Magazine
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> >         I think it's also significant that the early citations are all
> > to women, none of whom were clergymen but many of whom (and especially
> > the earliest) were associated with eleemosynary or educational
> > institutions.  Consider these datings:
> >
> >                 1936            Syracuse YWCA executive secretary
> >                 1938            superintendent of the Newington Home for
> > Crippled Children
> >                 1939            home counselor of Oklahoma City's public
> > schools
> >                 1940            Middlesex, Mass. women's club (speaker's
> > status unspecified)
> >                 1941            book with two female authors
> >                 1941            Texas state home demonstration agent
> >                 1941            visiting professor at Pennsylvania State
> > College
> >
> >         So seven out of seven of the early citations came from women.
> > For this period, that's not typical.  None of these refer in any way to
> > a clergyman.  These considerations argue against (though they certainly
> > do not disprove) an origin with Niebuhr or any other clergyman; they
> > argue so strongly against propagation through a conventional church
> > sermon that I think that vector all but disproved.  The initial
> > propagation, if not necessarily the origin, must have come from some
> > source to which a YWCA executive secretary, a superintendent of a home
> > for crippled children, and a highly placed home counselor would have had
> > access.  Plausible candidates include some sort of conference,
> > specialized publication, or traveling speaker.
> Some vector candidates IMHO:
>
> (1) Radio program (probably 'inspirational'-themed, whether overtly
> religious or not);
>
> (2) Magazine (ditto);
>
> (3) Embroidery pattern, wall motto, calendar, tchotchke of some sort
> (ditto).
>
> Any of these easily could have had a predominantly female target
> population.
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org