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Book Title

If You Want to Write

Subtitle
A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit
Author 1
Brenda Ueland; New Introduction by Andrei Codrescu
Body
But we must try to find our True Conscience, our True Self, the very Center, for this is the only first-rate choice-making center. Here lies all originality, talent, honor, truthfulness, courage and cheerfulness. Here lies the ability to choose the good and the grand, the true and the beautiful.

In her 93 remarkable years, Brenda Ueland published six million words. She said she had two rules she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not to do anything she didn't want to do. Her integrity shines throughout If You Want to Write, her best-selling classic on the process of writing that has already inspired thousands to find their own creative center. Carl Sandburg called this book "the best book ever written about how to write." Yet Ueland reminds us that "whenever I say 'writing' in this book, I also mean anything that you love and want to do or make." Selling over 280,000 copies in paperback, we are pleased to reissue If You Want to Write with a new introduction.

"I was with Ueland right up to the end and wanted to shout, 'Amen.'"—Andrei Codrescu, NPR

"I only have to read a few sentences and I am infected with the desire to follow her."—Women's Review of Books

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List Price
$16.00
ISBN
ISBN
978-1-55597-471-8
Format
Format
Paperback
Publication Date
Publication Date
Subject
Subject
Pages
Pages
180
Trim Size
Trim Size
5 1/4 x 8
Keynote
A bestselling classic book on how to write with over 280,000 copies sold.

About the Author

Brenda  Ueland
Brenda Ueland was born in Minneapolis in 1891 and grew up there. For many years of her adult life she lived in New York, working mostly as a freelance writer and disliking her work. Returning to Minneapolis, she began to teach writing in various community settings in the Twin Cities. She said of herself that she was born on Lake Calhoun "in a happier time before automobiles." Brenda Ueland was the author of three books, If You Want to Write, ME, and Strength to Your Sword Arm, many articles and short stories, and was a long-time teacher of writing. She was knighted by the King of Norway and set an international swimming record (for over-80-year-olds). She lived by two rules: to tell the truth, and not to do anything she didn't want to do. She died in 1985 at the age of 93.
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