If You Want to Write : A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

by Brenda Ueland

• ISBN13: 9781555972608
• ISBN10: 1555972608
• Edition: 10th
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1997-03-01
• Publisher: Graywolf Press

Summary

In her 93 remarkable years, veteran freelance writer, memoirist, and writing teacher Brenda Ueland published some six million words. She once said there were two simple rules that she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not do anything she didn't want to do. Such integrity both distinguishes and defines If You Want to Write, her bestselling classic that first appeared in the late 1930s and has inspired thousands to find their own creative center. As Carl Sandburg once remarked, Ueland's primer is "the best book ever written on how to write."

Author Biography

Brenda Ueland was born in Minneapolis in 1891. She published three books, including Me (an autobiography) and Strength to Your Sword Arm: Selected Writings, as well as several articles and short stories. A widely acclaimed teacher of writing for many years, Ueland was knighted by the King of Norway and set an international swimming record (for over-80-year-olds). She died in 1985.

Table of Contents

Everybody is talented, original and has something important to say	3	(7)
``Imagination is the Divine Body in every Man''	10	(7)
William Blake
Why a Renaissance nobleman wrote sonnets	17	(11)
The Imagination works slowly and quietly	28	(12)
``Sooner strangle an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires''	40	(9)
William Blake
``Know that there is often hidden in us a dormant poet, always young and alive''	49	(14)
de Musset
Be careless, reckless! Be a lion, be a pirate, when you write	63	(8)
Why you are not to be discouraged, annihilated, by rejection slips	71	(11)
People confuse the human and the Divine ego	82	(8)
Why Women who do too much housework should neglect it for their writing	90	(12)
Microscopic truthfulness	102	(11)
Art is infection	113	(9)
The third dimension	122	(11)
Keep a slovenly, headlong, impulsive, honest diary	133	(13)
You do not know what is in you---an inexhaustible fountain of ideas	146	(14)
On using the Imagination	160	(7)
``The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction''	167	(9)
William Blake
``He whose face gives no light shall never become a star''	176
William Blake

Supplemental Materials

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Rewards Program

Currently unavailable