"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
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"The Price of Truth" <em>The Sign</em>
This story in <em>The Sign</em> 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 for several of Cormier's stories.
<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>The Sign</em>
Robert E. Cormier Collection at Fitchburg State University's Amelia V. Gallucci-Cirio Library
July 1963
AnnaMary L. Consalvo
Katharine Covino
Elise Takehana
<a href="https://robertcormiertwistedintimacy.omeka.net/items/show/145" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">"St. Cecilia's and Me" St. Anthony's Messenger column 1177 Main St. USA</a> <br /><a href="https://robertcormiertwistedintimacy.omeka.net/items/show/117" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">"The Tenderness" The Sign</a>
JPG, 8.5x11
English
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1177 Main St. USA, September 1971
In this column, Cormier recounts his wife calling him out on faking the music he is listening to in a previous column. He normalizes the behavior by recounting several instances where, as a parent, he must pretend to have good advice, know the answers, or feign bravery. Some manipulation of the truth is a part of realism and in the spirit of truth-telling.
<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
September 1971
AnnaMary L. Consalvo
Katharine Covino
Elise Takehana
<a href="https://robertcormiertwistedintimacy.omeka.net/items/show/139" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">1177 Main St. USA, August 1972</a>
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+column">Magazine column</a>