Brenda Ueland – Author, Hero, Intellectual

Brenda Ueland lived most of her life in Minneapolis, the city where I grew up. She wrote and she taught writing; she lived most of her life within a mile or two of where I lived most of mine…and though we were contemporaries (for a time) I never met her.

I was still in my teens when she died, and I was well into my forties before I knew who she was, but from the moment I began to read her book: If You Want to Write I knew that I had found a mentor whose simple-prose and direct-honesty could guide me in the maturation of my own work.

Brenda wrote as a columnist for local newspapers and magazines, as well as national publications like Harper’s; she taught writing at the YWCA and published, among other things, a memoir about her life growing up in our fair city…Minneapolis, a book that bears the title: Me.

She was born in Minneapolis at the end of the nineteenth century; she spent her twenties in New York City where she was connected to various movements in the arts, literature and politics. She was a proto-feminist and a revolutionary thinker, she came to with a simple self-assuredness that was the defining characteristic of her public persona, and which I believe was a true expression of her authentic self…her own self, which she thought of as her muse.

Brenda Ueland is a hero to me…as a teacher of writing, she provided (and continues to provide) simple and profound guidance to writers of prose and poets. She taught her students to find their own voice, to listen to it calmly and write from there.

Brenda encouraged her students to be themselves, to tell their stories with the written-word as if they were speaking to their closest friend, to shout when they are shouting, to whisper in the time of whispering. She guided people to their true-selves, helping them to find the muse within their hearts so that they might write from their core with authenticity…always careful to remind them that the reader will know if they are faking.

She encouraged people to listen to themselves, as deeply and as interestedly as they might listen to any other, to become as familiar with the sound of their own voice as they are with the image of themselves they see in a mirror, to be, in effect, unsurprised by the the things they might hear themselves say.

Her book on writing had been out of print for nearly forty years until, a few years after her death in the 1980’s, it went back into production and became a best seller. Like Brenda, the book she wrote was ahead of its time, and the best treatise on writing I have ever been assigned.

 

 

On This Day - March 5th

On this day in the year 363 of the common era (CE) the Roman emperor Julian moves from Antioch with an army of ninety thousand troops to attack the Sassanid Dynasty of the Persian Empire in a campaign that leads to his death; one thousand, six hundred and thirty-two years later, the graves of tsar Nicholas II and the Romanov family are found in St. Petersburg.

On this day in the year 1496 CE, king Henry VII of England grants John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) a commission to explore for new lands; sixty-two years later, smoking tobacco is introduced to Europe by Spanish physician Francisco Fernández. Four hundred and sicty-four years after that, in 2022 CE, explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance, which sank in 1915 CE, is discovered after 107 years in excellent condition in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica.

On this day in 1616 CE the astronomical work De Revolutionibus, by Nicolaus Copernicus is placed on the Catholic index of Forbidden books; seven years later, Virginia enacts the first temperance law in the United States.

In 1645 CE the battle of Jankau in Bohemia takes place; Sweden defeats the holy Roman emperor Ferdinand III, thirty-nine years later, holy Roman emperor Leopold I, together with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Venetian Republic sign an agreement establishing the “Holy League” to prevent further expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe.

In 1743 CE the first religious journal in the United States, "The Christian History," is published in Boston by the Church of Christ; seven years later the first American Shakespearean production is performed in New York, New York…the play is Richard III. Twenty years after that, in 1770 CE, British soldiers shoot into a crowd of people on King Street in Boston Massachusetts. People in the crowd were throwing snowballs at them, the soldiers killed five men; among them was the former slave and seaman Crispus Attucks, he was the first to die in what would become known as the “Boston Massacre,” Attucks would then be held up as an early African-American martyr for the Revolutionary War. Four years later, John Hancock delivers the fourth annual “Massacre Day” oration, a commemoration of the Boston Massacre, and denounces the presence of British troops in Boston, thereby enhancing his stature as a leading Patriot. Eighty-four years after that, in 1858 CE, abolitionists in Boston establish "Crispus Attucks Day;"  thirty-nine years later, the American Negro Academy forms; one hundred and twenty-three years later, the United States government grants the city of Atlanta, Georgia one million dollars to assist for the search of a serial killer that was ultimately responsible for the deaths of twenty-eight African-American boys…the killer was only indicted for two of the murders, and found guilty of both.

In 1803 CE the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser become the first newspaper published in Australia, by government printer and ex-convict George Howe.

In 1821 CE Monroe is becomes the first United States president inaugurated on March 5^th (because the 4th was Sunday); twenty-eight years later Zachary Taylor is sworn in as twelfth president of the United States. Twenty-eight years after that, Rutherford B. Hayes is publicly inaugurated as nineteenth president.

In 1836 CE, Samuel Colt's Patent Arms Manufacturing Company manufactures its first pistol, the 36-caliber "Texas" model, in Paterson, New Jersey; seventeen years later, the Piano company Steinway & Sons is founded by Heinrich Steinweg (later Henry Steinway) in New York, New York. Fifteen years after that, 1868 CE, the stapler is patented in England by C. H. Gould; four years later, American engineer George Westinghouse patents triple air brake for trains.

In 1841 CE the first continuous filibuster in the United States Senate begins, as the Democratic minority attempt to run out the clock on a bill to establish a national bank…the effort continues for six days.

In 1850 CE, the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Strait between the Isle of Anglesey and the mainland of Wales is opened…and all the Fey lamented that the humans had paved the road to Avalon; forty-four years later Archibald Primrose, the fifth earl of Rosebery, becomes the first Lord of the Treasury (the official title of the United Kingdom’s prime minister). Thirty-seven years after that, in 1931 CE, Gandhi & British viceroy Lord Irwin sign pact in London that marks the end of the Civil Disobedience Movement in India.

In 1856 CE Georgia becomes the first state to regulate railroads; thirty-eight years later, Seattle authorizes the first municipal employment office in the United States. Thirty years after that, in 1923 CE, Montana & Nevada become the first states to enact old-age and pension laws; twelve years later, the first premature baby health law in enacted in the United States, in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1904 CE, Nikola Tesla describes the process of the ball-lightning formation in Electrical World and Engineer; three years later, the first radio broadcast of a musical composition airs.

In 1912 CE, Italian forces are the first to use airships for military purposes, performing reconnaissance behind Turkish lines; on this same day, the Spanish steamer Principe de Asturias sinks off the northeast coast of Spain, five hundred people are lost at sea. Forty-seven years after that, in 1959 CE, the United States and Iran sign economic and military treaty; thirty-two years later, Iraq repeals its annexation of Kuwait.

In 1924 CE, Frank Carauna becomes the first bowler to throw two perfect games in succession.

In 1933 CE, Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims a ten-day bank-holiday in the United States in an attempt to stem bank failures and restore confidence in the security of the monetary system; on this same day, Germany's Nazi Party wins the majority in parliament. Ten years after that, in 1943 CE, there are anti-fascist strikes throughout Italy; three years later, Winston Churchill gives his Iron Curtain speech in Fulton, Missouri, popularizing the term and drawing attention to the divisions that have already beset Europe after the end of World War II.

In 1955 CE. Elvis makes his first television appearance on a local video broadcast of the popular radio program Louisiana Hayride from the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana; five years later Elvis ends his two years of obligatory service in the United States Army.

In 1960 CE the iconic photograph, Guerrillero Heroico is taken of Che Guevara at a memorial service in Havana, by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda, possibly the most reproduced photograph in history; eleven years later, Stairway to Heaven is first performed by Led Zeppelin live at Ulster Hall, Belfast.

In 1962 CE the United States performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site; four years later we do it again. Four years after that, in 1970 CE, the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty goes into effect; on this same day, Dubnium atoms are conclusively detected. Ten years after that, in 1980 CE, earth satellites record gamma rays from the remnants of supernova N-49.

In 1969 CE the price of gold reaches a record high of forty-seven dollars per ounce; today the price of gold is $5,092 per ounce. Seven years after that, in 1976 CE, the British pound falls below two dollars for first time; today the value of the pound is 1.34 to the dollar.

In 2013 CE, Venezuelan vice-president Nicolás Maduro assumes the presidency after the death of Hugo Chávez; five years later, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un meets South Korean officials for the first time since taking office, hosting a dinner in Pyongyang.

In 2025 CE the Turing Award is given to American researchers Andrew Barto and Richard Sutton for their work on reinforcement learning, a cornerstone of AI technology; on this same day the estimated time-frame for the manufacture of bone tools by ancient humans is pushed back a million years after the discovery of a 1.5 million year old cache of bone tools in Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.