Cormier's Praise and Support of Teachers

Letter from Robert Cormier to Ms. Dudar 17 May 1980

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This one page, single spaced, typed letter from Robert Cormier to a Ms. Dudar, appears to be a response to her request for supporting materials and counsel regarding a censorship effort she was facing. We do not have her letter to him, so we infer that it was about The Chocolate War as Cormier references the book, specifically.  There is no address to Ms. Dudar on the letter, nor any reference to her locale. In that regard, Cormier drew comparisons to similar situations in Groton, Massachusetts and in South Caroline and that he enclosed materials from both of those censorship battles to share with her. Cormier’s letter also reflects his ill-ease with the power that one individual might have to keep or censor a book from a whole school’s population. As well, he questioned how far he could ask or expect teachers to go in defending his or other author’s works, given that most are working because they need to.

RELATED LINKS:

“The School Library versus the School Board: An Exploration of the Book Banning Trend of the 1980s” by Anna Lam (2011)
http://www.yalsa.ala.org/jrlya/2011/02/the-school-library-versus-the-school-board-an-exploration-of-the-book-banning-trend-of-the-1980s/

“ACLU Senses An Upturn In School-book Censorship In South” by Michael Hirsley (1985)
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1985-12-29/news/8503300165_1_school-libraries-censorship-georgia-chapter

Cormier's Praise and Support of Teachers