Robert Cormier was born in Leominster, Massachusetts on January 17, 1925. His father Lucien Joseph was a factory worker while his mother Irma Margaret was a housewife and stay at home mother. Cormier says, "I was a skinny kid living in a ghetto-type neighborhood wanting the world to know that I existed." He was raised Roman-Catholic and attended Fitchburg State College from 1944 to 1948 where he wrote for the Fitchburg Sentinel. He graduated in 1948 with a degree in Literature. While attending college he worked at a local radio station then moved on to be a writing consultant, reporter, and later settled to being a freelance writer the last 30 years of his life.
             On November 6, 1948 he married Constance Senay, together they had 4 children, three girls and one boy. When his own children were small, he worked as a newspaper reporter and wrote at night. He was a member of L'Union St. Jean Babtiste d'Amerique. He was also a chairperson on the board of trustees of the Leominster public library.
             Robert mostly wrote young adult fiction novels. The Chocolate War, I am the Cheese, and Beyond the Chocolate War naming just a few. The teen years, explains Cormier, are not a "peppermint world of fun and frolic." He tries to show the "strength of young adults-their resilience, their ability to absorb the blows teenage life delivers."
             Cormier wasn't restricted to writing only teen books, he wrote a few adult novels such as: Fade and Now and at the Hour. His novels have been read and enjoyed around the world and translated into over 10 different languages. One time a woman who hated his books met Cormier and instead of finding a monster, she saw who he really was-an ordinary guy trying to be "one of the good guys, sometimes failing, but trying anyway."
             He writes a story over and over until he is satisfied. "With each novel, I fill a shopping bag with material that has been
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