Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper...  more

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he'd had three months to write. It was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother's shoulder, and said, "Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird." This is author Anne Lamott's guide to better writing. It details her insights and procedures she uses in teaching her creative writing classes.

Anne Fadiman is--by her own admission--the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of Fanny Hill, whose husband buys her 19 pounds of dusty books for her birthday, and who once found herself poring over her roommate's 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only written...  more

Anne Fadiman is--by her own admission--the sort of person who learned about sex from her father's copy of Fanny Hill, whose husband buys her 19 pounds of dusty books for her birthday, and who once found herself poring over her roommate's 1974 Toyota Corolla manual because it was the only written material in the apartment that she had not read at least twice. This witty collection of essays recounts a lifelong love affair with books and language. For Fadiman, as for many passionate readers, the books she loves have become chapters in her own life story. Writing with remarkable grace, she revives the tradition of the well-crafted personal essay, moving easily from anecdotes about Coleridge and Orwell to tales of her own pathologically literary family. As someone who played at blocks with her father's 22-volume set of Trollope ("My Ancestral Castles") and who only really considered herself married when she and her husband had merged collections ("Marrying Libraries"), she is exquisitely well equipped to expand upon the art of inscriptions, the perverse pleasures of compulsive proof-reading, the allure of long words, and the satisfactions of reading out loud. There is even a foray into pure literary gluttony--Charles Lamb liked buttered muffin crumbs between the leaves, and Fadiman knows of more than one reader who literally consumes page corners. Perfectly balanced between humor and erudition, Ex Libris establishes Fadiman as one of our finest contemporary essayists.

The beloved classic - a twenty year correspondence between Helene Hanff, a freelance American writer living in New York  and a British used bookk dealer in London. They share wisdom, sentimental friendship based on their common love for books.

Long before there were creative-writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose. In Reading Like a Writer, Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools...  more

Long before there were creative-writing workshops and degrees, how did aspiring writers learn to write? By reading the work of their predecessors and contemporaries, says Francine Prose. In Reading Like a Writer, Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters. She reads the work of the very best writers -- Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Kafka, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Chekhov -- and discovers why their work has endured. She takes pleasure in the long and magnificent sentences of Philip Roth and the breathtaking paragraphs of Isaac Babel; she is deeply moved by the brilliant characterization in George Eliot's Middlemarch. She looks to John Le Carré for a lesson in how to advance plot through dialogue, to Flannery O'Connor for the cunning use of the telling detail, and to James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield for clever examples of how to employ gesture to create character. She cautions readers to slow down and pay attention to words, the raw material out of which literature is crafted.

Sometimes subtle, sometimes striking, the interplay between our lives and our books is the subject of this unique memoir by well-known publishing correspondent and self-described "readaholic" Sara Nelson. From Solzhenitsyn to Laura Zigman, Catherine M. to Captain Underpants, the result is a...  more

Sometimes subtle, sometimes striking, the interplay between our lives and our books is the subject of this unique memoir by well-known publishing correspondent and self-described "readaholic" Sara Nelson. From Solzhenitsyn to Laura Zigman, Catherine M. to Captain Underpants, the result is a personal chronicle of insight, wit, and enough infectious enthusiasm to make a passionate reader out of anybody.

In this tenth-anniversary edition of the much-loved Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction, author Tom Raabe takes a humorous look at the all-consuming love of books and has updated the information within by discussing the ever-mutating new E-landscape and its effects on fellow biblioholics...  more

In this tenth-anniversary edition of the much-loved Biblioholism: The Literary Addiction, author Tom Raabe takes a humorous look at the all-consuming love of books and has updated the information within by discussing the ever-mutating new E-landscape and its effects on fellow biblioholics everywhere. Have you ever awakened the morning after a book-buying spree and been unable to remember how many volumes you bought or how much you spent? Have you ever been reprimanded or fired for reading on the job? Have you ever purchased or rented additional living space just for your books? If you answer "yes" to any or all of these questions, don't worry. You are not alone. Your complete recovery awaits you-just buy one more book!

How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated. You are told about the various levels of reading...  more

How to Read a Book, originally published in 1940, has become a rare phenomenon, a living classic. It is the best and most successful guide to reading comprehension for the general reader. And now it has been completely rewritten and updated. You are told about the various levels of reading and how to achieve them -- from elementary reading, through systematic skimming and inspectional reading, to speed reading, you learn how to pigeonhole a book, X-ray it, extract the author's message, criticize. You are taught the different reading techniques for reading practical books, imaginative literature, plays, poetry, history, science and mathematics, philosophy and social science. Finally, the authors offer a recommended reading list and supply reading tests whereby you can measure your own progress in reading skills, comprehension and speed.

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary--and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857,...  more

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary--and literary history. The compilation of the OED, begun in 1857, was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

In 1999, Jeremy Mercer fled Canada for Paris with nothing but his meagre savings. Nearly homeless, he met George Whitman, owner of Shakespeare & Co. In exchange for work in the legendary bookstore, Whitman allows struggling writers to live in and around the shelves. He offered Jeremy a cot. Here...  more

In 1999, Jeremy Mercer fled Canada for Paris with nothing but his meagre savings. Nearly homeless, he met George Whitman, owner of Shakespeare & Co. In exchange for work in the legendary bookstore, Whitman allows struggling writers to live in and around the shelves. He offered Jeremy a cot. Here begins a charming story of Paris, passion, and, of course, books.

In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Lewis Buzbee celebrates the unique experience of the bookstore -- the smell and touch of books, the joy of getting lost in the deep canyons of shelves, and the silent community of readers. He shares his passion for books, which began with ordering through the...  more

In The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop, Lewis Buzbee celebrates the unique experience of the bookstore -- the smell and touch of books, the joy of getting lost in the deep canyons of shelves, and the silent community of readers. He shares his passion for books, which began with ordering through the Weekly Reader in grade school. Woven throughout is a fascinating historical account of the bookseller trade -- from the great Alexandria library to Sylvia Beach’s famous Paris bookstore, Shakespeare & Co. Rich with anecdotes, The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop is the perfect choice for those who relish the enduring pleasures of spending an afternoon finding just the right book.

Reading lists of some of the author's favorite books accompany her thoughts on the role of books and reading in her life. The Library of Contemporary Thought is a groundbreaking series where America's finest writers and most brilliant minds tackle today's most provocative,...  more

Reading lists of some of the author's favorite books accompany her thoughts on the role of books and reading in her life. The Library of Contemporary Thought is a groundbreaking series where America's finest writers and most brilliant minds tackle today's most provocative, fascinating, and relevant issues. Striking and daring, creative and important, these original voices on matters political, social, economic, and cultural, will enlighten, comfort, entertain, enrage, and ignite healthy debate across the country.

“It’s not that I don’t like people,” writes Maureen Corrigan in her introduction to Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading. “It’s just that there always comes a moment when I’m in the company of others -- even my nearest and dearest -- when I’d rather...  more

“It’s not that I don’t like people,” writes Maureen Corrigan in her introduction to Leave Me Alone, I’m Reading. “It’s just that there always comes a moment when I’m in the company of others -- even my nearest and dearest -- when I’d rather be reading a book.” In this delightful memoir, Corrigan reveals which books and authors have shaped her own life -- from classic works of English literature to hard-boiled detective novels, and everything in between. And in her explorations of the heroes and heroines throughout literary history, Corrigan’s love for a good story shines.

Journey into the world of book collecting with the Goldstones-rediscover the joy of reading, laugh, and fall in love with books all over again.The idea that books had stories associated with them that had nothing to do with the stories inside them was new to us. We had always valued the history,...  more

Journey into the world of book collecting with the Goldstones-rediscover the joy of reading, laugh, and fall in love with books all over again.The idea that books had stories associated with them that had nothing to do with the stories inside them was new to us. We had always valued the history, the world of ideas contained between the covers of a book or, as in the case of The Night Visitor, some special personal significance. Now, for the first time, we began to appreciate that there was a history and a world of ideas embodied by the books themselves.

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is an enchanting tale that captures the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening. An immediate international bestseller, it tells the story of two hapless city boys exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China's...  more

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is an enchanting tale that captures the magic of reading and the wonder of romantic awakening. An immediate international bestseller, it tells the story of two hapless city boys exiled to a remote mountain village for re-education during China's infamous Cultural Revolution. There the two friends meet the daughter of the local tailor and discover a hidden stash of Western classics in Chinese translation. As they flirt with the seamstress and secretly devour these banned works, the two friends find transit from their grim surroundings to worlds they never imagined.

A bibliophile's pilgrimage to where book lovers go when they die-Hay-on-Wye. Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside-to move, in fact, to the little cobblestone village of Hay-on-Wye, the 'Town of Books' that boasts fifteen hundress...  more

A bibliophile's pilgrimage to where book lovers go when they die-Hay-on-Wye. Paul Collins and his family abandoned the hills of San Francisco to move to the Welsh countryside-to move, in fact, to the little cobblestone village of Hay-on-Wye, the 'Town of Books' that boasts fifteen hundress inhabitants-and forty bookstores. Antiquarian bookstores, no less. Hay's newest citizens accordingly take up residence in a sixteenth-century apartment over a bookstore, meeting the village's large population of misfits and bibliomaniacs by working for world-class eccentric Richard Booth-the self-declared King of Hay, owner of the local castle, and proprietor of the world's largest and most chaotic used book warren. A useless clerk, Paul delights in shifting dusty stacks of books around and sifting them for ancient gems like Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable, Confessions of an Author's Wife, and I Was Hitler's Maid. He also duly fulfills his new duty as a citizen by simultaneously applying to be a Peer in the House of Lords and attempting to buy Sixpence House, a beautiful and neglected old tumbledown pub for sale in the town's center. Taking readers into a secluded sanctuary for book lovers, and guiding us through the creation of his own book, Sixpence House becomes a meditation on what books means to us, and how their meaning can still resonate long after they have been abandoned by their public. Even as he's writing, the knowledge of where his work will eventually end up-rubbing bindings with the rest of the books that time forgot-is a curious kind of comfort.

When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny. All children mythologize their birth... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for...  more

When Margaret Lea opened the door to the past, what she confronted was her destiny. All children mythologize their birth... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's collection of stories, which are as famous for the mystery of the missing thirteenth tale as they are for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist. The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself -- all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune, but kept her violent and tragic past a secret. Now old and ailing, at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain. Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission. As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized. It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling, but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity. She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them and become, finally, transformed by the truth themselves. The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and we loved as children. Diane Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter, and in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfied back upon the shore of your everyday life.

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours." -- J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) "I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading." ...  more

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours." -- J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951) "I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading." -- Thomas B. Macaulay, Life (1876)The love of books, and the desire to speak and write of that love, are as old as books themselves. In fact, they are even older than printed books. "All the glory of the world would be buried in oblivion, unless God had provided mortals with the remedy of books," wrote Richard de Bury in The Philobiblon (The Love of Books), which was completed in 1345, more than a hundred years before Gutenberg printed his first Bible.And in every generation since de Bury's there have been new voices expressing the pleasures they take in books and reading. Speaking of Books contains hundreds of the best of those expressions -- entertaining and thought-provoking quotations about the reading and enjoyment of -- not to mention obsession with -- books. The collection includes examples of bibliophilia that range across the centuries and around the globe, from ancient Chinese proverbs to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from the Bible to Woody Allen, from Jane Austen to Mark Twain, and from William Shakespeare to J. D. Salinger.Filled with insight, wisdom, and humor, Speaking of Books will be read with pleasure by everyone who believes, as Thomas Carlyle did, that "of the things which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the things called books." "I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." -- Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, August 7, 1991 "It was books that taught me that the things that torment me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive." -- James Baldwin, in the New York Times, January 1, 1964 "Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore!" -- Henry Ward Beecher, Star Papers; or, Experiences of Art and Nature (1855) "What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to read a hundred?" -- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Over the Teacups (1891) "I took a speed-reading course where you run your finger down the middle of the page and was able to read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It's about Russia." -- Woody Allen, in a letter by Phyllis Mindell to the New York Times, September 3, 1995 "You may perhaps be brought to acknowledge that it is very well worthwhile to be tormented for two or three years of one's life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it." -- Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1818) "Book-love, I say again, lasts throughout life, it never flags or fails, but, like beauty itself, is a joy for ever." -- Holbrook Jackson, The Anatomy of Bibliomania (1930)

When writers aren't writing books, they're often writing about books. ("A room without books is a body without a soul" --Cicero, p. 47), or about being a writer ("I am a writer perhaps "because" I am not a talker," --Gwendolyn Brooks, p. 29), about technique ("Style and structure are the essence...  more

When writers aren't writing books, they're often writing about books. ("A room without books is a body without a soul" --Cicero, p. 47), or about being a writer ("I am a writer perhaps "because" I am not a talker," --Gwendolyn Brooks, p. 29), about technique ("Style and structure are the essence of a book; great ideas are hogwash" --Vladimir Nabokov, p. 165), about other writers ("Indeed there are few better ways of spending a hilarious evening then in recalling the worst lines in English poetry" --W. H. Auden, p. 8), or publishing ("Yes, I suppose some editors are failed writers--but so are most writers" --T.S. Eliot, p. 76), about the writing life ("I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning" --Peter deVries, p. 64), or reading ("He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it" --Joseph Heller, p. 106). "Only in Books" is the most complete and up-to-date collection of quotes in print on books and writing--over a thousand quotations, inspiring and amusing, familiar and surprising--guaranteed to delight book lovers everywhere. From Woody Allen to Emile Zola, Herman Melville to Toni Morrison, "Only in Books" presents the best of what has been said and written about books. For anyone who agrees with Tomas Jefferson's exclamation "I cannot live without books" or with Franz Kafka, "A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our souls." "Only in Books" is the perfect book-side companion.

What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface -- a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character -- and...  more

What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey?. Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface -- a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character -- and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you. In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.

Meyer, mistakenly called a "book snake" by a friend who meant "bookworm," describes countless hours spent sorting through dusty bins, forgotten shelves and packing boxes "hunting" for books. In a highly readable, conversational style, Meyer recounts each find as a...  more

Meyer, mistakenly called a "book snake" by a friend who meant "bookworm," describes countless hours spent sorting through dusty bins, forgotten shelves and packing boxes "hunting" for books. In a highly readable, conversational style, Meyer recounts each find as a first-class adventure. At an auction, he buys a box of books containing a veritable John Steinbeck bonanza: a first edition of The Grapes of Wrath and a specially bound, signed limited edition of East of Eden. In the same box, purchased for a "buck a book," Meyer found first editions of volumes by Pearl Buck, Somerset Maugham and Aldous Huxley. Meyer tells of travels around the country and to places as distant as Vietnam in search of rare books. Along the way, he meets many characters and has unbelievable luck picking up mint copies of classics. He becomes a collector of the works of Willa Cather and finds his way to her graveside to pay his respects. Among his other treasured finds are first editions of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and an inscribed copy of Carl Sandburg's first book, Chicago Poems. Raised among bibliophiles, Meyer tells of childhood book quests with his father. He traces the changing face of the rare book business and the disappearance of rare bookstores and antiquarian book departments in mainstream stores like Marshall Fields. Meyer's insistence that this isn't a catalog of prices or a book about the love of reading rings true as the story of his passion for the book and for collecting the bound words of great writers emerges and infuses this charming volume. Illus.

Louisa May Alcott once wrote that she had taken her pen for a bridegroom. Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern, friends and business partners for fifty years, have in many ways taken up their pens and passion for literature much in the same way. The "Holmes & Watson" of the rare book business,...  more

Louisa May Alcott once wrote that she had taken her pen for a bridegroom. Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern, friends and business partners for fifty years, have in many ways taken up their pens and passion for literature much in the same way. The "Holmes & Watson" of the rare book business, Rostenberg and Stern are renowned for unlocking the hidden secret of Louisa May Alcott's life when they discovered her pseudonym, A.M. Barnard, along with her anonymously published "blood and thunder" stories on subjects like transvestitism, hashish smoking, and feminism.Old Books, Rare Friends describes their mutual passion for books and literary sleuthing as they take us on their earliest European book buying jaunts. Using what they call Finger-spitzengefühl, the art of evaluating antiquarian books by handling, experience, and instinct, we are treated to some of their greatest discoveries amid the mildewed basements of London's booksellers after the Blitz. We experience the thrill of finding one of the earliest known books printed in America between 1617-1619 by the Pilgrim Press and learn about the influential role of publisher-printers from the fifteenth century.Like a precious gem, Old Books, Rare Friends is a book to treasure about the companionship of two rare friends and their shared passion for old books.

“Do we still know how to read a novel?” John Sutherland, Chairman of the 2005 Booker Prize Committee, asks. His disheartened answer is an unequivocal, “No.” But Sutherland has not given up hope. With acerbic wit and intellect, he traces the history of what it used to mean...  more

“Do we still know how to read a novel?” John Sutherland, Chairman of the 2005 Booker Prize Committee, asks. His disheartened answer is an unequivocal, “No.” But Sutherland has not given up hope. With acerbic wit and intellect, he traces the history of what it used to mean to be well-read and tells readers what it still means today. Using this delightful book as a means to an end, he reminds readers how the delicate charms of fiction can be at once wonderful and inspired and infuriating. On one level this is a book about novels: how they work, what they’re about, what makes them good or bad, and how to talk about them. At a deeper level, this is a book in which one of the most intimate tête-à-têtes is described—one in which a reader meets a novel. Will a great love affair begin? Will the rendezvous end in disappointment? Who can say? In order for the relationship to take its appropriate course all the details must be clearly acknowledged and understood for their complexities: plot, point of view, character, style, pace, first and last sentences, and even beauty. Still, Sutherland knows a true understanding of fiction is more than a flirtation with text and style—it is a business. Taking his readers on a trip to the bookshop, he helps them judge a book by its cover based on design and color, wondering aloud what genre might be best, even going so far as to analyze one of the latest American bestsellers to further help the buying reader choose the novel that is right for him or her. In a book that is as wry and humorous as it is learned and opinionated, John Sutherland tells you everything you always wanted to know about how to read fiction better than you do now (but, were afraid to ask).

In the tradition of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera's The Art of the Novel, How Fiction Works is a scintillating study of the magic of fiction--an analysis of its main elements and a celebration of its lasting power. Here one of the most prominent and stylish critics of...  more

In the tradition of E. M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel and Milan Kundera's The Art of the Novel, How Fiction Works is a scintillating study of the magic of fiction--an analysis of its main elements and a celebration of its lasting power. Here one of the most prominent and stylish critics of our time looks into the machinery of storytelling to ask some fundamental questions: What do we mean when we say we "know" a fictional character? What constitutes a telling detail? When is a metaphor successful? Is Realism realistic? Why do some literary conventions become dated while others stay fresh?James Wood ranges widely, from Homer to Make Way for Ducklings, from the Bible to John le Carré, and his book is both a study of the techniques of fiction-making and an alternative history of the novel. Playful and profound, How Fiction Works will be enlightening to writers, readers, and anyone else interested in what happens on the page.

Passionate and iconoclastic, these 80 articles and essays represent Ueland's entirely original view of the moral, social, and political issues of Midwestern, and American life.

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...  more

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."