Let Me Stand Alone: Book Tour, Reading Events Share Writings of Rachel Corrie

By Laura Cooley


	At an April 7 book launching in Seattle, Craig and Cindy Corrie sign copies of Let Me Stand Alone: The Journals of Rachel Corrie (Photo L. Cooley.)

MANY ARE familiar with the tragic story of Rachel Corrie, the American peace activist killed at age 23 in Rafah, Gaza Strip while trying to block an Israel Defense Forces-driven Caterpillar bulldozer from demolishing the home of a Palestinian physician. What was not as well known at the time of her death in 2003 is the talent Corrie possessed as a writer.

Now, five years later, her writings from childhood until the time of her death have become available. Let Me Stand Alone, The Journals of Rachel Corrie (available from the AET Book Club) brings together writings from observations by 8-year-old Rachel living in Olympia, Washington, through her growth into teen concerns and deeper reflections on nature and on geopolitical realities ranging from Russia to the Middle East and beyond. Published by W.W. Norton & Company, the book is drawn from a variety of Corrie’s writings—journal entries, e-mails, college papers, poems, scraps of paper, even paper napkins—along with sketches and other artwork.

This past April, Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, together with her sister, Sarah Corrie Simpson, launched a series of book readings and signing events on the West Coast. Following events in Berkeley, Seattle, Olympia and Portland, Corrie’s parents continued on to Washington, DC, New York, Iowa City, and Minneapolis. At each venue, their daughter’s words were read aloud by volunteers, including peace activists, family friends, academics and actresses.

At Seattle’s Town Hall on April 7, 2008, Craig Corrie introduced Let Me Stand Alone as “the culmination of a lot of work.” Many people contributed in different ways and worked hard to make it happen. Insightful and thought provoking, Corrie’s writing is also peppered with humor. The poet Adrienne Rich praised her as a “critical observer of herself and others...alternating to the world of both nature and politics; a practical idealist in the best American tradition.” The Seattle audience appreciated the reflections on imagery about Mount Rainier, laughed upon hearing flavorful descriptions of Olympia and other familiar Pacific Northwest locales, and grew silent upon hearing Corrie’s perspectives about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, like this passage, written in February 2003, one month before her killing:

“I don’t know if many of the children here have ever existed without tank-shell holes in their walls and the towers of an occupying army surveying them constantly from the near horizons. I think, although I’m not entirely sure, that even the smallest of these children understand that life is not like this everywhere...no amount of reading, attendance at conferences, documentary viewing, and word-of-mouth could have prepared me for the reality of the situation here. You just can’t imagine it unless you see it...”

One of the Puget Sound-based readers was 19-year-old Torrey Berkson, who had previously played the part of Rachel at the Paradise Theater’s production of “My Name Is Rachel Corrie” in Port Townsend, Washington. Soon to attend theatrical school in New York, Berkson said of Corrie: “She wasn’t afraid to speak her mind.” The role of Corrie was an important one for her, Berkson added, because so few plays have strong female characters. “She had a powerful aura about her,” said Berkson.

Shortly after her killing, some of Rachel’s e-mails from Gaza to her family were published in the UK’s Guardian newspaper. Later The Washington Post and other newspapers printed them as well. One of those who read them was the stage and screen actor Alan Rickman, who contacted the Corrie family to ask if there were more writings, as he was interested in workshopping it at the Royal Court Theatre in London.

The Corries were willing to send more writings, but it took time. In the beginning especially, it was emotionally quite taxing. Months passed. Then Sarah Corrie Simpson, now 34, started in on typing up her sister’s writing. “I would spend a day reading through her journals,” she said. “I found I needed that to get through it...Then the next day, I’d go back and type it up.”

The Corries sent about 170 pages to Rickman. Then they sent more—nearly 300 pages all told. Based on the writings, Rickman and Katharine Viner developed the play “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” which has been staged in the UK, U.S., and several other countries. It also was translated into Arabic and premiered in March at Al-Midan Theatre in Haifa. The role of Corrie was played by Lana Zreik, an Arab Israeli, whose performance Cindy Corrie described as “amazing” after she and her husband saw the play, which was directed by Riad Masarwi.

It was Rickman and Viner who first suggested that Rachel’s writings become a book. There were offers from different publishers. One person intent on exploring a book idea with the Corries was Bill Clegg, an agent based in New York. Clegg kept in touch with the Corries over the years, hoping they might come around to the idea. Again, sifting through the material took time—especially after the Corries discovered that there were “tubs” of Rachel’s writing and artwork. “There were at least five of these Home Depot-style bins,” recalled Cindy. “Rachel was always a writer. She was the kid scribbling in the corner.”

Or, when she wasn’t writing, she was sketching or doodling, always going around with a notebook in hand. By the fall of 2006, the Corries had sent Clegg and their editor and publisher hundreds of pages to work with.

“Rachel was always a writer. She was the kid scribbling in the corner.”

Let Me Stand Alone is not merely the collected fragments or coming-of-age story of a life cut all too short. Rather, it is a journey into the personal insights of a writer keenly sensitive to place, the natural world, and the geopolitical realities around her. Corrie grew up in a small house near Puget Sound and next to the Black Hills of Washington State. The strong sense of place she developed comes through in her descriptions of nature—trees and creeks at Evergreen State College, where she was a student, and Mount Rainier, the 14,000-plus foot peak where she spent a year in the Washington Conservation Corps. Corrie’s sense of wonder and imagination are palpable: “In the summer the rushes grow so tall you can hide in them and be completely invisible. This is where I came from; tunnels through rushes...This is where I came from and this is where I would have liked to stay: sunburned and hidden and close to water, making up whole pretend histories about shipwrecks and Swiss Family Robinson.”

Her reflections on the people who lived on “contested land” generations before her, the Squiaitl, are an eerie prelude to her later experience as a member of the International Solidarity Movement practicing nonviolent resistance in Gaza.

As she grew into a young woman, Corrie felt a need to connect with things “real.” She worked for several months as a crisis line volunteer while still in high school, and later as the drop-ins coordinator for a health care agency that offers services to the mentally ill and those with chemical dependency. Ultimately, her insatiable curiosity and “need to know,” coupled with a desire to make a difference in the world, drove her to human rights work in the Middle East. What she leaves behind are magical words—an “imaginary Tahiti” and other metaphors to inspire us and make us think in new ways about humanity, with all its foibles. As Cindy Corrie said, “You’re entering into her heart, and into her soul. The writing’s what we have.”

Laura Cooley is a free-lance writer and communications consultant based in Seattle, WA.