‘Why write?’: A grandfather’s hobby that became a creative inspiration

Every author, poet and musician has a list of writers who have inspired them. Writer Brian Bartels of Madison tells WPR’s “Wisconsin Life” that he has a long list of creatives who have shaped him. At the top is someone near and dear to his heart.

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Ask any writer to tell you their influences and you will hear the great names passed around. Joan Didion. John Steinbeck. Toni Morrison. While these writers always impress me with their literary swagger, the most influential writer I have ever known never had a New York Times bestseller, but easily carried a more distinguished title: Grandpa. 

When my grandfather, Roland Bartels, retired in the early 1980s, he decided he did not want to sit and watch television every day. Most men in Rollie’s small Wisconsin hometown of Shawano talked about hunting, fishing and the Green Bay Packers. So he decided to challenge his comfort zone and try a local writing class, consisting of the teacher, six other local women and himself.  

Rollie suffered from arthritis and his hands often shook. He couldn’t write longhand very well, but he figured he could type if the opportunity presented itself. So my grandmother Stella purchased a typewriter for him from St. Vincent’s, and at 72 years years young, Grandpa Bartels became a writer. 

Rollie made the written word a priority in his daily life. He typed one finger at a time, one page a day. And he enjoyed the challenge of capturing the world on that single page, harboring one simple objective: Fill the page with a topic important to you, and that’s a day well spent wondering about the world.  

For writers, inspiration comes in many forms. There are hundreds of excuses to not write. But why do we write?  Some say they feel most like themselves when writing. Andrea Gibson wrote to remember, to heal and to let the air in. Nicole Krauss says it never comes out clear enough when we speak, so writing provides the ideal translation. Paulo Coehlo writes as a way to try turning sadness into longing.

Anne Lamott’s holistic “Bird By Bird” captures the inspiration of what some of us are lucky enough to find early in life: our family.  “

Ever since I was a little kid,” she writes, “I’ve thought that there was something noble and mysterious about writing, about the people who could do it well, who could create a world as if they were little gods or sorcerers.”

If you ever have the chance to drop by Joseph Leonard, a cozy restaurant in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village with many Wisconsin ties, inside you will find a framed, typed letter written by my Grandpa Bartels. It is titled “Why Write?” and it offers his thoughts on why we look at the world of writing and treat it with our own unique sanctity. It offers one person’s contemplations on the creative possibilities surrounding his own life, and the wonders of ruminating on reasons why writers attempt to form words in the first place. “Why Write?” takes one blank page and reflects on what the writer has seen, heard and believed to be true, even if it is conjured from the imagination. And when I read it to this day, it still brings me goose bumps. 

I helped open Joseph Leonard in 2009, and Gabriel Stulman, the owner, a University of Wisconsin-Madison grad, was so touched when he read my grandfather’s “Why Write?” He wanted to frame it and hang it somewhere everyone could see it. We ended up hanging it in the bathroom. 

It became so popular we had to reconsider how to share it with everyone, as people were repeatedly happy to steal the framed copy on the wall. So we made copies with a sign attached to the letter, saying, “Copies Available at Bar.” And eventually, we made the letter into postcards we handed out as check presenters, and the response was quite overwhelming. It became a conversation stimulant for people attending the restaurant, and offered me a chance to speak about my grandpa as though he were still living larger than life, and share a little of his story. Even certain celebrities, like Robin Wright of “The Princess Bride,” asked for copies, inspired by the letter’s genuine sentiment. The domino effect of his letters achieved something he never imagined when writing down his thoughts:  his words lived on, and were connecting to other artists, igniting their own artistic creativity. 

My grandfather loved words the way I hope you love words; he discovered them on his own terms and used what he could find to craft an ongoing wonder of our literary ecosystem. He delighted in the sounds they made inside his head, the way they unfurled as he danced across their landscapes. He was a literary hero on his own terms, the way many other people are who take to writing with the appropriate respect and discipline it warrants. 

If I am ever weary or losing focus on a writing assignment, or challenged by the rigor and distractions of daily life, I think of my grandpa at his tiny writing desk. Stories are bridges, and writers are the engineers responsible for the blueprints of their design.

 The end of Grandpa Bartels’ lovely one-page manifesto is a reflective nod to those special connections we find and appreciate as we maneuver through the legacy of our time on earth. 

“I just love putting words on paper,” he says. “I wish I found this out earlier in life.”

I hope you find some joy and inspiration from his letter for your own creative pursuits. 

“Wisconsin Life” is a co-production of Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS Wisconsin. The project celebrates what makes the state unique through the diverse stories of its people, places, history and culture.