Watch Cineb. Outraged by American military intervention in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War, Mark Twain wrote a short story called "The War Prayer" in 1905. Harper's Bazaar Magazine rejected the piece, as did Twain's own publisher. Even his family and friends feared it was 'sacrilegious', and the story remained unpublished until 1923...thirteen years after his death. "I don't think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth."