A single page of typewritten notes is overwritten with pencil notes that show time duration and what appear to be flight numbers and times. Cormier bemoans the immorality of our times and specifically mentions abortion.
In this letter, presumably responding to a student, Robert Cormier shares his sources of inspiration for Tenderness that came from the news and his adolescence. He shares that Wickburg is a fictionalized version of Worcester, MA and encourages the…
In this letter to his agent, Cormier discusses current and forthcoming projects, particularly surrounding a potential novel on French-Canadians in New England. Cormier shows a remarkable degree of self-awareness in assessing his own writing,…
In this four-page letter (page 2 missing) to agent Marilyn Marlow, Cormier discusses at length his difficulties writing a new novel, as well as publication challenges for his finished novel The Rumple Country. He solicits her advice on a short story…
This is a two-page typed letter to Marilyn Marlow of Curtis Brown Ltd. Literary agency. Cormier discusses his difficulty in settling on an idea for his new novel. One novel on a woman looking to be a nun reads dated to him and another is overtly…
In this letter to a student, Robert Cormier describes how his own emotions fuel his writing and how he must be emotionally invested in his characters. He also discusses World War II and his fictional town of Monument.
This one-page letter from Cormier accompanied his revised Tenderness draft. He addresses the character shifts he made with Lori and Eric and expresses his gratitude for her comments and his contentment with the revised version of the novel.
This two-page letter to Karen Wojtyla details his response to the copy editor's comments on Tenderness. The changes frequently address word choice, names, ages, and quote attributions.
Cormier writes to Julie in response to her four interview questions for a class project. It appears he enjoyed a friendship with her teacher, Ms. Hawks. Cormier discusses his childhood during the depression, his interests, and his motives for…
In this one-page typed reply to Judy's letter, Robert Cormier confirms that the quick pacing of Tenderness was deliberate. He mentions that he created the character of Lori well before beginning the actual novel. He concludes by praising Judy's…
In this short half-page letter, Cormier thanks Debra for choosing Tenderness as her senior thesis. He reveals that one inspiration for this character Lori came from a girl he knew whose life he pitied. He was also interested in the humanity of serial…
In this letter to Dana, presumably a young reader, Cormier writes about finding inspiration for his novels in the lives of his children. He also speaks to the timeless nature of emotions, especially those of adolescence.
In this four-page letter to his editor, Craig Virden, Robert Cormier defends his decision to label Tenderness a YA novel even though it features some departures from the genre, including an older protagonist and a morally ambiguous main character in…
In this two-page typed draft of a letter to a family friend, Catherine, Cormier conveys sympathy to her and her family over the loss of her father. With at least a dozen pen edits, this copy clearly shows revisions. In it, he encourages her to…
In this brief letter, Cormier points to Tenderness as a reflection of rampant violence in the real world and expresses hope that even monsters like Eric Poole can be saved.