Book review: If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland (1938)

My copy of If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland, first published in 1938. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Brenda Ueland was a Minnesotan author who published two books during her lifetime: Me: A Memoir, in 1939, and If You Want to Write in 1938. Ueland’s mother was Clara Ueland, a suffragette leader. I took a class in high school about Minnesota history, and we read a biography of Clara Ueland, Gentle Warriors: Clara Ueland and the Minnesota Struggle for Woman Suffrage, by Barbara Stuhler. We also took a field trip to visit the Ueland’s home, which still stands near Lake Harriet and Bde Maka Ska. As I was reading If You Want to Write I looked up Brenda Ueland, as I wondered if she was related to Clara Ueland. And then I had one of those fun moments where the circle connects.  

If You Want to Write has been recommended by authors I respect, and I found it to be a fascinating read. It ended up being a good contrast to the macho sensibility of The War of Art, by Stephen Pressfield, which I read in December.  

Ueland’s thesis is that we all can create. The title of the first chapter is “Everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say.” I love that title, and I firmly agree with it. Ueland taught writing classes for many years, and she sprinkles the book with stories and examples from her classes.  

A quote that stood out to me was this one: “Inspiration does not come like a bolt...but it comes into us slowly and quietly and all the time, though we must regularly and every day give it a little chance to start flowing.” (p.49) It’s so important to remember that inspiration will come if you give it a chance, but it may not strike like that proverbial bolt of lightning, or a light bulb over your head.  

Ueland’s stories of students in her class finding their voices are inspiring. They are a useful lesson to remember that you have to find your own voice in writing, you cannot simply imitate someone else’s voice and style and subject matter. Of course, that’s easier said than done.  

But I do have to quibble with Ueland on a few points in her book. She gives us a few excerpts from her student Sarah McShane’s writing. Ueland then compares McShane’s writing to John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. “The writing is different from Sarah McShane’s but it is no better, no more convincing or alive. It has more vocabulary. But as a matter of fact my compassion for the people in it does not seem to turn over at all.” (p.78) Ueland admits that she might be biased in favor of her student. And there are many novels from 1937 that she could have picked to compare her student’s work to that no one would think twice about. Had she claimed Sarah McShane’s writing was as good as James T. Farrell’s Studs Lonigan trilogy, no one in 2025 would bat an eye. But Ueland had the misfortune to choose Of Mice and Men, which has become a revered classic, read by generations of students.  

Ueland really lost me with this sentence: “Tolstoy, Ibsen, Blake, Goethe, Thomas Mann and all great men, known or unknown, famous or obscure—they are great men in the first place and so they cannot say anything that is not important, not a single word.” (p.130) Okay, I get that it was 1938 and the “Great Man” theory of history was very prevalent. But still, this is just ridiculous. It’s useless to worship idols so completely. You will like some things an author writes, and some things they write you won’t like. You don’t have to take every word as though it was a drop of gold from the hand of a master. Writers are human. Their output will vary.  

I’m a huge fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald, but I am under no illusion that every single word he wrote was brilliant. Fitzgerald wrote almost 200 short stories. Needless to say, they vary greatly in quality. What I like to say about Fitzgerald is that even in his worst short stories, there are still two or three sentences that will take your breath away. For me, that’s a more useful measurement of artistic achievement than just saying “Everything he wrote was great. End of discussion.”  

What if someone asked me which Tom Wolfe book I would recommend to them? It wouldn’t be very useful if I said to them “Everything he wrote was perfect, start anywhere.” Wolfe’s books covered a wide range of the American experience—if the person was more inclined to non-fiction, I’d recommend The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test or The Right Stuff. If they wanted a novel, I’d say The Bonfire of the Vanities.  

Sometimes it’s more valuable to think about what doesn’t work about a novel, short story, play, or film than what does work. I’m not advocating for being critical just for the sake of being critical, but there are times when it’s useful to say, “This didn’t quite work for me, for the following reasons.”  

Those are small quibbles compared to the value of If You Want to Write as a whole. If you’re interested in the creative process, or writing specifically, it’s a useful book. And it’s pretty amazing how well it holds up, 87 years after it was published.  

As I was reading If You Want to Write, I reflected on how lucky I am to have an outlet for my writing. If I was one of Brenda Ueland’s students taking her writing class in 1938, what would I have done with my writings? Sent them off to various magazines in the vain hope that they might accept something? I suppose so. I’m grateful that I’m able to just click a few buttons and poof, my thoughts are out there for the world to read. I’m not under any illusions that I’m reaching a huge mass audience with my book reviews and articles, but it is very gratifying to me to just have my writings out there where they might find an audience. Thinking about this made me happy to live in the modern world. 

Bob Uecker 1934-2025

The Pop Fly Pop Shop print of Bob Uecker, art by Daniel Jacob Horine, 2024.

Bob Uecker was one of a kind. Uecker’s career in pro baseball began in 1956, when he was signed by his hometown team, the Milwaukee Braves. Uecker spent 6 seasons in the minor leagues before finally getting a shot in the big leagues in 1962. Uecker actually flashed some power in the minors, hitting 19 home runs in 1956, 15 in 1957, 22 in 1958, and 14 in 1961. In the majors, Uecker was that least glamorous of baseball players, a backup catcher. At the beginning of the 1964 season, Uecker was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he was the backup for Tim McCarver. Can you imagine playing on a team where your two main catchers were Tim McCarver and Bob Uecker? That must have been a very talkative, very funny bench.  

Bob Uecker's 1965 Topps baseball card. 

The 1964 Cardinals ended up winning the World Series, even though Uecker didn’t see any postseason action. Uecker’s 1965 Topps baseball card noted that “his funny-man antics keeps teammates loose.” Little did Topps know how right they were. On the front of his 1965 Topps card, Uecker is pictured with a huge grin on his face, batting left-handed. Bob fooled the Topps photographer, as Uecker was actually a right-handed hitter.  

St. Louis Cardinals team photo, 1965, with Uecker and Bob Gibson holding hands. Steve Carlton is on the far left, sitting down. 

Uecker and his battery mate Bob Gibson pulled a very funny practical joke on the Cardinals. For a team photo, Uecker and Gibson were sitting next to each other in the front row, holding hands with huge smiles on their faces. According to Uecker, the Cardinals fined both him and Gibson. And of course, they had to retake the photo. But if you look at that team photo, take a look at the player sitting on the far left of Uecker and Gibson’s row: it’s young Steve Carlton.  

Carlton was a rookie in 1965, and Uecker caught 5 games that Carlton pitched in. Uecker was behind the plate for Steve Carlton’s first major league start, on June 14, 1965. Pitching against the Pirates, Lefty’s career as a starter began inauspiciously, as he gave up a home run to the leadoff batter, Bob Bailey. But he settled down after that. However, manager Red Schoendienst took Carlton out of the game after he had pitched 4 1/3 innings, with the game tied at 2, meaning Carlton had no chance to get his first major league win. If Carlton had gotten just two more outs, he would have nabbed the win, as the Cardinals scored 2 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take the lead, and they ended up winning, 5-2.  

After the 1965 season, the Cardinals dealt Uecker, along with Dick Groat and Bill White, to the Phillies. It wasn’t a great trade for the Cardinals, who got Pat Corrales, Alex Johnson, and Art Mahaffey in return, none of whom did much of anything for the Cardinals. Despite being a lifetime .200 hitter, Uecker went 3 for 10 against Steve Carlton, giving him an even .300 average. Uecker had 2 RBI’s and 1 strikeout against Lefty. But it does seem fitting that Lefty also got Uecker to ground into a double play.  

Bob Uecker hit only 14 home runs in his major league career, but 3 of those home runs were off of Hall of Famers: Uecker took Sandy Koufax, Gaylord Perry, and Fergie Jenkins deep. That’s a pretty impressive feat.  

Of course, Bob Uecker’s greatest fame came after his playing days were over. Uecker was a frequent guest on “The Tonight Show,” and he cracked Johnny Carson up with his baseball stories. Uecker was a master of self-deprecating wit, and Carson nicknamed him “Mr. Baseball.” Uecker became the radio announcer for the Milwaukee Brewers, and stayed in the job for more than fifty years, a truly remarkable run. 

When I was a kid growing up in the 1980’s, Bob Uecker was a ubiquitous presence in baseball pop culture. I knew Uecker from his frequent Miller Lite beer commercials, his role on the TV show “Mr. Belvedere,” from hosting VHS tapes of funny baseball clips, and of course his role as announcer Harry Doyle in the movie Major League. Uecker’s classic delivery of “Juuuuuust a bit outside” was frequently quoted by me and my Dad when I was growing up.  

There was no one quite like Bob Uecker. Who else had made a career out of making fun of his own major league baseball career? No one did it like Uecker did. When I was about 10 or 11 years old, I was gleefully reading Uecker’s humorous autobiography The Catcher in the Wry. When adults asked me what I was reading, I responded with “The Catcher in the Wry,” not understanding why every adult seemed so impressed that I was reading Bob Uecker’s autobiography. I do recall seeming surprised that so many adults had heard of Bob Uecker’s autobiography. That’s a story that I’m sure Uecker would have appreciated.  

A few months ago, the Pop Fly Pop Shop, which features the art of Daniel Jacob Horine, came out with a print honoring Bob Uecker. I went back and forth a bit, thinking if I should buy it or not. But I decided to buy it, and I’m so glad I did, because Bob Uecker just makes me smile. The art piece is a really nice tribute to Uecker and his sense of humor.  

Bob Uecker is a great example of the adage “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” Life made Bob Uecker a career .200 hitter in the major leagues. Life also made Bob Uecker a funny, warm person who was able to share his talents and his love of baseball with millions of people over the decades. He was special, and he will be missed by many baseball fans.