Browse Items (61 total)

One Could Do Worse001.jpg
In this column, Cormier describes his daily routine as a househusband. He writes at home, does the shopping, cooks dinner, get his daughter off of the bus, cleans house, and meets with friends and neighbors at lunch. He states that none of these…

Pretend A Verb_St. Anthony Messenger_April 1967_001.jpg
In this short story, Jerry's father receives a questionnaire attached to a letter from New York about an inheritance. The family spends the summer dreaming of the amount they would receive and that optimism carries them through a summer layoff and…

may 1977 St. Cecilia_s and Me001.jpg
In this column, Cormier writes about the closing of his alma mater, St. Cecilia's. He talks of his memories of the school including the house fire he witnessed from his classroom, his crush on Sister Emile who taught music, the poem on spring he…

Suddenly, Shes 10 Years Old St Anthonys Messenger002.jpg
This column recounts Cormier's daughter's transitional stage as a ten-year-old. Among the topics of discussion are her love of horses and her new-found preoccupation with getting the right haircut and crushing on television actors.

That Summer_The Sign_Feb1958.001.jpg
In this short story, 15-year-old Jean-Paul visits his uncle in Canda to recover from an extended illness. During his stay, he develops a crush for an older woman from Montreal, as does his uncle. While Jean-Paul comes of age through this unrequited…

The Beauty That Lingers St Anthonys001.jpg
This short reflective piece is a meditation on the aging process. Cormier's observation of two groups of women at different stages of life leads him to contemplate the nature of beauty. He concludes that our real beauty is our ability to "survive and…

2_John Fitch IV The Days of Sweet Innocence.jpg
In this bi-weekly column written under the name "John Fitch IV", Cormier blends verse and prose to poke fun at our naïve innocence of the world as viewed through the lens of movie clichés. Amongst the roughly three dozen clichés are some on female…

The Impossible Thank You001.jpg
In this column Cormier writes on the impossibility of writing a simple thank you note to a mother. He writes of the great encouragement and warmth his mother offered him as a budding writer. He recounted movie plots with her on the weekends and…

%22The Moustache%22 Scholastic VOICE.jpeg
Cormier's often reprinted story "The Moustache" presents a seventeen-year-old protagonist whose mustache provokes a case of mistaken identity. When he visits his grandmother in a nursing home, she takes him for her long-deceased husband. His…

%22The Price of Truth%22 The Sign.jpeg
This story in The Sign tells how 11-year-old Jerome takes up painting in an effort to impress his teacher, the nun Marie-Thérèse, whose later departure from the convent serves as the story's subplot. The story takes place in Frenchtown, the setting…

3_John Fitch IV The SOS Signals Not Always Noticed.jpg
Robert Cormier's adopted persona, John Fitch IV, articulates in this bi-weekly column, how closely related specific positive or neutral qualities are to those that are destructive. He claims that we misunderstand distress signals that reveal…

%22The Tenderness%22 The Sign.jpeg
This story recounts the efforts of thirteen-year-old Phillip as he tries to impress his piano teacher Sister Angela and win a spot in the orchestra for the Christmas recital.

The Trouble with Parents.jpg
This piece recounts a boy's discomfort with watching his parents argue, as told in his trademark detailed narrative style. By talking to his parents, he finds their similarities. His sister's observations also inform him of the role of nonverbal…

153_When It's Time To Say001.jpg
In this column Cormier writes about saying goodbye to his son after settling him in at the college dormitory. He ponders the differences between saying goodbye to a son than to a daughter, who allows for more sentimentality. He comes to realize that…

Heroes cut and pasted typescript pieces.jpeg
Twelve strips of cut sections of Heroes show Cormier's active revision process where he literally cut then pasted sections as he worked on the Heroes manuscript. Scenes on the Wreck Center sexual assault, Francis's meeting with Nicole after the war,…
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