Who wrote the Serenity Prayer?

Yale Book of Quotations

In 2008, Yale Book of Quotations editor Fred R. Shapiro wrote that various versions of the prayer seemingly attributable to Nibuhr were in use as early as 1936.

Shapiro worked with a law librarian at Yale who used new databases of archival documents to locate newspaper clippings and a book from as far back as 1936 that quote versions of the prayer. All are from civic leaders all over the United States – including a YWCA leader in Syracuse and a public school counselor in Oklahoma City.

Some refer to the prayer as if it were a proverb, while others appear to claim it as their own poetry.

None attribute the prayer to anybody. However at the time, Niebuhr was touring the United States, speaking at YWCAs, youth conferences, churches and social clubs.

The 1943 version

In 1943, Niebuhr included this version in a widely published sermon. It was picked up in a Federal Council of Churches book for U.S. military chaplains and servicemen during World War II.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Living one day at a time, Enjoying one moment at a time, Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, Taking, as Jesus did, This sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it, Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will, So that I may be reasonably happy in this life, And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

So few words ...

Everyone in A.A.'s Manhattan headquarters was struck by the power and wisdom contained in the prayer's thoughts. "Never had we seen so much A.A. in so few words," Bill writes.

Someone suggested that the prayer be printed on a small, wallet-sized card to be included in every piece of outgoing mail. Ruth Hock, the Fellowship's first secretary, contacted “Henry S.,” a Washington D.C. member, and a professional printer, asking him what it would cost to order a bulk printing. Henry's enthusiastic response was to print 500 copies with the remark: "Incidentally, I am only a heel when I'm drunk, so naturally, there could be no charge for anything of this nature."

"With amazing speed," writes Bill, "the Serenity Prayer came into general use and took its place alongside our two other favorites, the Lord's Prayer and the Prayer of St. Francis."

But they had no idea who had written it.