Robert Cormier

This article is about the author. For colonist, see Robert Cormier (colonist).
Robert Edmund Cormier
Born (1925-01-17)January 17, 1925
Leominster, Massachusetts, USA
Died November 2, 2000(2000-11-02) (aged 75)
Boston, Massachusetts
Occupation Writer
Nationality American
Period 1962–2000
Genre Realist young adult (YA) novels, crime fiction, thrillers
Notable awards Margaret A. Edwards Award
1991
Phoenix Award
1997
Spouse Constance Senay
Children
  • Roberta Sullivan ("Bobbie")
  • Peter J. Cormier (1 son)
  • Chris Cormier Hayes
  • Renee E. Wheeler

Robert Edmund Cormier (January 17, 1925 – November 2, 2000) was an American author, columnist and reporter, known for his deeply pessimistic, downbeat literature. His most popular works include I Am the Cheese, After the First Death, We All Fall Down and The Chocolate War, all of which have won awards.[1] The Chocolate War was challenged in multiple libraries.[2] His books often are concerned with themes such as abuse, mental illness, violence, revenge, betrayal and conspiracy. In most of his novels, the protagonists do not win.[3]

Life

Robert Cormier was born to Lucien Joseph and Irma M. Cormier, in Leominster, Massachusetts,[1] in the French-Canadian section of the town called French Hill, in the year 1925. He was the second of eight children. His family moved frequently to afford rent, but never left his hometown. Even when he was much older and owned a summer home, it was only 19 miles away from Leominster.[4] Cormier attended a private Catholic school, St. Cecilia's Parochial School. He began writing when he was in the first grade. He was praised at school for his poetry. He first realized his aspiration to become a writer in 7th grade, when he was encouraged by a nun to write a poem. He attended Leominster High School, graduating as the president of his class. As a freshman at Fitchburg State College, he had his first short story published when a college professor, Florence Conlon, without his knowledge sent one of his stories to a national Catholic magazine, The Sign, for $75.[5] Cormier began his professional writing career scripting radio commercials and went on to become an award-winning journalist. Even though he became widely known, he never stopped writing for his local newspaper, the Fitchburg Sentinel.[6]

Cormier died in 2000 due to lung cancer.

Cormier became a full-time writer after the success of his first adult novel for teenagers, Now and at the Hour (1960);[7] others followed, such as The Chocolate War and After the First Death. He was concerned with the problems facing young people in modern society, which was reflected in his novels.[8][9] He soon established a reputation as a brilliant and uncompromising writer. His awards include the Margaret A. Edwards Award of the Young Adult Services Division of the American Library Association. That lifetime award recognizes a particular body of work that provides young adults with a window through which they can view the world, and which will help them to grow and understand themselves and their role in society.[5] Cormier won the annual award in 1991 citing The Chocolate War; I Am the Cheese; and After the First Death.[10]

In a few of his books, Cormier's hometown of Leominster became the fictional town of Monument, and its village of French Hill became Frenchtown. The nearby city of Fitchburg became Wickburg.[8]

Challenges to The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War has been challenged in various libraries and schools for its language and its depictions of sexual activity, secret societies, and anarchic students.[9] Between 1990 and 2000 it was the fourth most-frequently challenged book in the U.S., according to the American Library Association.[2]

Awards

I Am the Cheese (1977), which was named to several contemporary book lists, won the 1997 Phoenix Award from the Children's Literature Association as the best English-language children's book that did not win a major award when it was originally published twenty years earlier. That is named for the mythical bird phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, to suggest the book's rise from obscurity.[11]

By that time Cormier had won the 1991 Edwards Award citing I Am the Cheese as one of three 1974 to 1979 books "taken to heart by young adults over a period of years". "Cormier's brilliantly crafted and troubling novels have achieved the status of classics in young adult literature."[10]

Published works

Nonfiction
Fiction
Novels except as stated

References

  1. 1 2 "Biography for Robert Cormier". IMDb. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  2. 1 2 "The 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000". American Library Association (ALA). Archived from the original on December 10, 2007. Retrieved 2008-01-21.
  3. ↑ "Robert Cormier". Penguin Books. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  4. ↑ "Robert Cormier, London, July 2000". (interview). ACHUKA Books. Retrieved 2008-01-29.
  5. 1 2 "Robert Cormier". A City of Words: The Worcester Writer's Project. WPI Library. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  6. ↑ "Barnes & Noble.com". Retrieved 2008-01-25.
  7. ↑ http://users.wpi.edu/~cityofwords/cormier.html
  8. 1 2 Gardner, Lyn (November 6, 2000). "Robert Cormier: American novelist whose work was a hotline to the hearts and minds of teenagers all over the world". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  9. 1 2 "Robert Cormier". eNotes. Retrieved 2008-01-28.
  10. 1 2 "1991 Margaret A. Edwards Award Winner". Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). American Library Association (ALA).
      "Edwards Award". YALSA. ALA. Retrieved 2013-09-26.
  11. ↑ "Phoenix Award Brochure 2012". Children's Literature Association. Retrieved 2012-12-14.
    See also the current homepage, "Phoenix Award".
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