The War Prayer

If you never have read Mark Twain’s The War Prayer, read it this weekend before the fifth anniversary of 9/11. If you have read it before, read it again, and share it with your friends.

Twain apparently dictated it around 1904-05; it was rejected by his publisher, and was found after his death among his unpublished manuscripts. It was first published in 1923 in Albert Bigelow Paine's anthology, Europe and Elsewhere.

The story is in response to a particular war, namely the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed.

You can read it here.