[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 41 (Wednesday, March 12, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1576-S1577]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRIBUTE TO KATHERINE PATERSON
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I come to the Senate floor today to talk
about a treasured Vermont author, Katherine Paterson. Her award-winning
prose has won alcolades near and far, but her writing has reached more
than just those who have read her published words. In 2004, she started
a letter exchange with an American soldier based in Afghanistan. Upon
his return, she helped him launch his writing career.
Trent Reedy of the Iowa Army National Guard was enthralled with
Paterson's master work, ``Bridge to Terabithia,'' while deployed to
Farah, Afghanistan. Reedy's wife Amanda sent him the book, and he loved
it so much that he read it in one sitting and sent a thank you note to
the author.
Katherine's husband John, whom I knew as a gentle soul, sorted her
mail and made sure that his wife saw the letter from Trent. A
correspondence began between the two, and Trent finally revealed his
intent to become a writer. Upon his return, Trent visited Katherine and
John in Vermont and at Katherine's urging, and with her recommendation,
studied writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts and later wrote his
first novel, ``Words in the Dust.''
As someone who considers Katherine and her late husband to be special
friends, I was thrilled to read Sally Pollak's article in the
Burlington Free Press, ``Soldier finds lifeline in letter exchange with
Vermont author.'' In fact I was so pleased, I called Katherine the day
the story was published.
In addition to being a Vermont treasure, Katherine is an acclaimed
author whose stories will be read for generations. Marcelle and I have
enjoyed them, our children have enjoyed them, and now our grandchildren
enjoy her stories. Katherine's influence is also felt through the many
writers she has mentored, including Trent Reedy.
In honor of Katherine Paterson, I ask that Sally Pollak's story from
the February 23, 2014, edition of the Burlington Free Press be printed
in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
[From the Burlington Free Press, Feb. 23, 2014]
Soldier Finds Lifeline in Letter Exchange With Vermont Author
(By Sally Pollak)
While serving in Afghanistan Trent Reedy wrote Katherine
Paterson to say thank you; the friendship that emerged
changed his life.
The truck pulled into the U.S. Army base in Farah,
Afghanistan, on another scorching desert day. This July,
2004, delivery promised exciting things: The cook was
expecting a load of steak. He had rustled up some potatoes to
serve with the meat.
The soldiers in the unit, housed in a stable with a well
that often ran dry, were eager for a real meal. They'd been
eating field rations called MREs, meals ready to eat. Yet
when the cook opened the coveted steak he almost vomited. The
meat had gone rancid en route, recalled Trent Reedy, a
soldier in the unit. The meal was scrapped.
The truck also carried the mail. In it was a package for
Reedy, sent by his wife in Iowa. She had mailed him a book by
Katherine Paterson, ``Bridge to Terabithia.''
Paterson, who lives in Barre, is an acclaimed novelist who
writes books for children and teenagers. She is a former
National Ambassador for Young People's Literature whose
honors include two National Book Awards and two Newbery
Medals, the first for ``Bridge to Terabithia,'' published in
1977.
Reedy's wife, Amanda, read ``Bridge to Terabithia'' in
sixth grade. She sent her husband the book after he mentioned
to her that the stories he was thinking about concerned young
people. Reedy had never read a Paterson book.
The day it arrived at the army base, he read ``Bridge to
Terabithia'' in one sitting. It
[[Page S1577]]
would become a kind of lifeline for a frightened young man in
a faraway place with dreams of writing. Reedy read Paterson's
book in the place that would be the setting for his first
novel. ``Bridge to Terabithia'' was also the starting point
of a friendship between Reedy and Paterson.
``It was amazing,'' Reedy said the other day by telephone
from his home in Spokane, Wash. ``I needed that reminder that
there was still hope and still beauty in the world. At that
time in my life there was none. There was nothing except guns
and fear. I was really not at all sure that I was ever going
to get out of that place.
``This book gave me a little bit of beauty at that time,
and I needed it. Not the way I need a new app for my iPad. I
needed it to keep my soul alive.''
Everything was different
Reedy, 35, was an English major at the University of Iowa
when he enlisted in the Iowa Army National Guard. Clinton was
president. Reedy never imagined he'd be deployed to fight in
a war. He had graduated from college and was working two
jobs: substitute teacher and monitoring a security camera at
a store.
Ten years ago, on a shift at his security job, Reedy got a
phone call from his sergeant.
``Stampede,'' the commanding officer said, using the code
word that signaled the guard soldiers were activated for war,
Reedy said.
``With one phone call, everything was different,'' he said.
After basic training at Fort Hood, Texas, Reedy was sent to
western Afghanistan. Paterson's book reached him about six
months after the word ``stampede'' altered his life. The day
``Bridge to Terabithia'' arrived, Reedy had a rare break from
his three-part routine: the unit's mission (providing
security for reconstruction efforts), guard duty, sleep. He
read the book.
``Bridge to Terabithia'' is about two friends--a boy and a
girl--who create an imaginary forest world where they play
together and share adventures. The world is shattered by an
accident: the girl drowns in the river the friends cross by
rope swing to get to Terabithia. Paterson wrote the book
after her son David's close friend was killed by lightning
when the children were eight.
After reading the book, even as he carried his loaded M16
``scanning my sector to make sure there weren't any hostiles
in the area,'' all he could think about was Paterson's novel.
``I thought maybe I can keep going if I remember kids are
still having friendships,'' he said. ``And the adventures of
growing up.''
On Aug. 1, 2004, from Farah City, Afghanistan, Reedy wrote
Paterson a letter. He sent it through her publisher--unsure
if it would reach her. The letter begins with an apology that
he didn't type it. Reedy explains that he is writing from
Afghanistan, where he is on a mission ``in support of
Operation Enduring Freedom.''
He thanks Paterson for a book that ``mesmerized'' him.
``You wrote an absolutely beautiful novel and I, like
Jessie Aarons, fell in love with Leslie Burke,'' Reedy wrote,
referring to characters in Paterson's book. `` . . . Maybe it
was because she was a spark of beauty in a land and a war
where beauty is of so little importance.''
In Vermont, where Paterson moved with her family 28 years
ago, Reedy's letter made its way to her Barre home. It
arrived in a batch of mail sent from her publisher. Paterson,
81, estimates she gets hundreds of letters a year, many from
students who are encouraged by their teachers to write.
(Paterson described a humorous note: ``You're the best
writer in the world,'' the student wrote. ``Sometime I'm
going to read one of your books.'')
A writer on my hands
Paterson was married for 51 years to John Paterson, a
pastor who died in September. They raised four children
together, and have seven grandchildren. After John Paterson's
retirement in 1995 from the First Presbyterian Church in
Barre, he took up the practice of reading Katherine
Paterson's mail. Each year, he passed on to Katherine
Paterson a handful of letters among the hundreds he read.
John Paterson selected Reedy's letter and gave it to his
wife.
``You just read it and weep,'' Katherine Paterson said.
``And you think this poor, lonely kid out there, not knowing
what was going to happen to him.''
She was struck by another aspect of his letter: ``By the
time I finished that letter,'' Paterson said, ``I knew I had
a writer on my hands.''
The two became pen pals, a friendship whose beginnings
remain a source of happy amazement for Reedy.
``I didn't need to hear back,'' Reedy said. ``I just wanted
to thank her for letting me keep going. And I thought she
should know that what she's doing is really important.''
Yet he received a response in October, 2004.
``She talked about how special it feels for a reader to
appreciate this story she had written that seemed, at the
time of her writing it, to be almost too personal to share,''
Reedy recalled.
The next month, on leave in Iowa, Reedy bought all the
Katherine Paterson books he could find and brought them back
to Afghanistan with him.
``I read those and loved them,'' he said. ``There were some
Afghans who were learning English, and I passed along the
books to them and talked about how much I enjoyed her
books.''
What Reedy initially kept to himself in his correspondence
with Paterson was that he aspired to be a writer. He decided
to share this when it occurred to him he might not make it
home alive. But he never sent her any writing (apart from the
letters), mindful of imposing on her.
Reedy did seek Katherine Paterson's advice about graduate
writing programs, and she recommended Vermont College of Fine
Arts in Montpelier. Paterson is a trustee of the college,
whose low-residency programs include children's and adult
literature.
``I said `impose,' '' Paterson recalled. `` `Plenty of
people impose on me that I don't like nearly as much as I
like you.' ''
Based on his letters, Paterson offered to write a letter of
recommendation for Reedy. He accepted only after a letter he
expected fell through, she said.
Reedy was accepted at Vermont College of Fine Arts, the
only MFA program he applied to. It was there that he wrote
the manuscript for his first novel, ``Words in the Dust.''
The book, published by Arthur A. Levine Books, tells the
story of an Afghan girl and her family. It concerns the
girl's love for words; and her search for a connection to her
dead mother, and for beauty in a place where it's not so easy
to find that.
Reedy's story was inspired, in part, by a girl he met in
Afghanistan. Like the character in the novel he would write,
the child had a cleft lip. Soldiers in Reedy's unit pooled
their money to pay the girl's transportation to a hospital,
where a U.S. Army doctor performed surgery to repair her
face.
``She faced this whole thing with this wonderful sort of
quiet courage, this incredible dignity,'' Reedy recalled. ``I
promised her that I would do whatever I could to tell her
story. She couldn't understand me, but that's what I told
her. In the army, we have to keep our promises, so you don't
make many. I think if I hadn't made that promise, I wouldn't
have been able to stick through to the end to write that
book.''
He was also encouraged by Katherine Paterson to continue
writing the book. Her support came amid concerns about cross-
cultural writing: a white man from Iowa writing a novel about
a disfigured girl in war-torn Afghanistan.
``I asked her if this made any sense, and if she thought it
was a good idea to write this,'' Reedy said. ``And she said,
`Well, I think you should try.' And that was all the
permission I needed.''
Paterson, who was born in China, has written books set in
Japan and China. The notion that a writer can't write about a
foreign culture, its people and places, essentially says
imagination is worthless, she said.
``Ideally, she could write her own story,'' Paterson said
of Reedy's protagonist. ``But she can't yet. And somebody
needs to tell it for her. And I do believe in the power of
imagination. Tolstoy can write about women very well, and he
has never been one.''
To be a writer
Reedy's book, with an introduction by Katherine Paterson,
was published three years ago. He dedicated it to Paterson
and his father.
``I loved the book,'' she said. ``And if my name was going
to call attention to it and my name was going to help promote
it, I'd write an introduction.''
In her introduction, Paterson wrote in part: ``I am
profoundly grateful for an introduction to a land and culture
that are foreign to me through this beautiful and often
heartbreaking tale of one strong and compassionate girl. She
will live on in my heart and, I feel sure, the heart of every
reader of this fine book.''
Before his first trip to Vermont, Reedy wrote once more to
Katherine Paterson. He said he'd be honored, should he be
accepted to Vermont College, to buy her a cup of coffee.
Sure, she said, but Paterson also had an idea: Why don't you
come and stay at our house the night before your residency
begins?
In July, 2006, Katherine Paterson ``and Mr. Paterson,'' to
use Reedy's words, picked him up at the airport in Burlington
and drove him to their Barre home.
He was very nervous about meeting Katherine Paterson, Reedy
said, expecting her to show up in an expensive car and drive
him to her rich mansion. But he found that Paterson,
``arguably the most successful middle-school author who is
really around,'' drives a regular car and lives in a ``normal
house.''
The MFA program at Vermont College ``gave me my dream,''
Reedy said. Yet Katherine Paterson taught him what it means
to be a writer.
``Nobody has taught me more about how to be the kind of
writer I want to be than Katherine Paterson has,'' Reedy
said. ``No one has taught me more about how to live as a
writer. She has, I think, modeled the need for humility and
generosity.''
Once, feeling he didn't belong at Vermont College of Fine
Arts and that he was ``hopelessly outclassed,'' Reedy
conveyed this in a letter to Katherine Paterson. He wanted to
steal lines from Emily Dickinson and walk around campus
saying: ``I'm nobody. Who are you?''
Paterson wrote back that she, too, is nobody. If she ever
forgets that, she's in big trouble.
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