"Pretend, A Verb: To Make Believe"
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 slim savings. Jerry's worldly uncle already knows its a hoax but argues that the whole family knew that to be true but wanted to dream anyway.
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Robert+Cormier">Robert Cormier</a>
<em>St. Anthony's Messenger</em>
Robert E. Cormier Collection at Fitchburg State University's Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library
April 1967
AnnaMary L. Consalvo
Katharine Covino
Elise Takehana
JPG, 8.5 x 11 magazine page
English
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Magazine+feature+-+short+story">Magazine feature - short story</a>
Michael Antoniak's letter to Robert Cormier April 1986
In this one-page letter, young reader Michael Antoniak identifies the theme of injustice in Cormier's work and asks the author if he experienced teasing and injustice as a child. He also notes the depressing tone of Cormier's endings. Handwritten in ink at the bottom are the words "postcard answer 4/5/86".
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Michael+AntonkiakRobert+E.+Cormier+Collection+at+Fitchburg+State+University%27s+Amelia+V.+Gallucci-Cirio+Library%0D%0A">Michael AntonkiakRobert E. Cormier Collection at Fitchburg State University's Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library
</a>
Robert E. Cormier Collection at Fitchburg State University's Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library
April 1986
AnnaMary L. Consalvo
Katharine Covino
Elise Takehana
<a href="https://robertcormiertwistedintimacy.omeka.net/items/show/1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span>"Meet The Bully" John Fitch IV Column</span></a>
JPG, 8.5x11
English
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=51&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Letter">Letter</a>