A Thousand Cranes

  Enter the world of a gifted writer and inspiring teacher.

IN HER UNFORGETTABLE COLLECTION of essays and poems, Lee Isaacson Roll combines her talent for poetry with her bent for self-deprecating humor, adds the ability to tell a good story, and leavens this mixture with a deep understanding of human nature. Her talent is evident whether she’s writing about her children and husband, living in Brazil, or the cancer that eventually took her life. Isaacson Roll writes with humor, honesty, and insight.

Lee is as much a part of the lives she touched as she was a part of our world — an insurmountable object of hope, inspiration, devotion, and vibrancy for life. Her ability to “see the world in a grain of sand” and share that vision with her words, her stories, and her teachings made her a mentor to many — life coach to all.

Ryan Weemer

Co-Founder/CEO, WAR WRITERS' CAMPAIGN

Lee’s ability to share her most intimate thoughts on paper was a gift that she lovingly shared, and this book gives her life even more meaning now that she is gone. Whether you knew her or not, the words she shares in these pages are powerful, funny, thought provoking, sad, unique, and more. I invite you to get to know Lee better or to meet her for the first time — as they say in the musical Wicked, she will leave a hand print on your heart.

Carolyn Brown Hodge

Founding Board of Directors, ILLINOIS WOMEN'S INSTITUTE FOR LEADERSHIP

About the Author

Lee Isaacson Roll grew up on Ancores Island in Washington State. As a young woman she traveled in Europe, visiting Sweden, home of her ancestors, and the Isle of Mull in Scotland. For two years she taught English at the American School in Rio de Janeiro. She earned an M.A. from Eastern Illinois University and taught creative writing to high-school students in Oakand, Illinois. She lived in nearby Brocton with her husband. Together they raised three children.