Browse Items (61 total)

Stray scratch paper
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.

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Trenton Keim 5 May 2000.jpeg
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…

cormier marilyn E1f1001.jpg
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,…

Robert Cormier's letter to Miss Marilyn Marlow 4 October 1960.jpeg
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…

Robert Cormier's letter to Miss Marilyn Marlow 29 March 1968.jpeg
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…

Mike Gubbins 6 March 1999.jpeg
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.

Robert Cormier's letter to Karen 9 April 1996.jpeg
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.

Robert Cormier's letter to Karen 20 May 1996.jpeg
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.

Julie 2 January 1996 E1.1 folder 17.jpg
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…

Robert Cormier's letter to Judy 28 May 1997.jpeg
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…

Debra Bunn 6 March 1999.jpeg
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…

Dana 15 March 1989 E1.1 folder 17.jpg
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.

Robert Cormier's letter to Craig 28 February 1996.jpeg
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…

Robert Cormier's letter to Catherine July 1994.jpeg
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…

Ashley Hardiman 14 April 1998.jpeg
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.
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