Written by Mark Twain during the Philippine-American War in the first decade of the twentieth century,
The War Prayer
tells of a patriotic church service held to send the town's young men off to war. During the service, a stranger enters and addresses the gathering. He tells the patriotic crowd that their prayers for victory are double-edged-by praying for victory they are also praying for the destruction of the enemy... for the destruction of human life.
Originally rejected for publication in 1905 as "not quite suited to a woman's magazine," this antiwar parable remained unpublished until 1923, when Twain's literary executor collected it in the volume
Europe and Elsewhere
. Handsomely illustrated by the artist and war correspondent Philip Groth,
remains a relevant classic by an American icon.