Cormier, Robert (1925-2000), was an American author of serious novels for young adults. Cormier’s novels typically deal with young people facing difficult situations in modern society. The heroes often lose to vicious enemies. Cormier’s novels are frequently grim in tone, dealing with such intense subjects as mental illness, violence, bullying, revenge, sexual abuse, and betrayal. Cormier’s realistic stories made him popular among young adult readers. But they also aroused controversy for the author’s frank treatment of disturbing, pessimistic themes.
Cormier first gained recognition for three novels published during the 1970’s. His first young adult novel, The Chocolate War (1974), takes place in a Roman Catholic high school. It describes the consequences of a student’s refusal to join the majority in selling chocolates as a school fund-raising project. Cormier wrote a sequel, Beyond the Chocolate War (1985). I Am the Cheese (1977) is a suspenseful thriller about a boy caught in a confusing web of institutional corruption. After the Death (1979) portrays a terrorist attack through the minds of three young people, one of them a terrorist.
Cormier’s later novels include The Bumblebee Flies Away (1983), Other Bells for Us to Ring (1990), Tunes for Bears to Dance To (1992), and In the Middle of the Night (1995). His short stories were collected in Eight Plus One (1980). Frenchtown Summer (1999) is a novel written in free verse. Cormier also wrote a memoir, I Have Words to Spend: Reflections of a Small-Town Editor (1991).
Robert Edmund Cormier was born on Jan. 17, 1925, in Leominster, Massachusetts. He was a reporter for the Telegram and Gazette in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1948 to 1955. From 1955 to 1978, he served as a reporter and editor for what became the Fitchberg-Leominster Sentinel and Enterprise. Cormier wrote three adult novels before permanently turning to young adult fiction with the success of The Chocolate War. He died on Nov. 2, 2000.
