Robert Edmund Cormier (January 17, 1925 – November 2, 2000) was an American writer and journalist, known for his deeply pessimistic novels, many of which were written for young adults.

[1] Cormier's more popular works include I Am the Cheese, After the First Death, We All Fall Down, and The Chocolate War, all of which have won awards.

[2] Robert Cormier was born in 1925 in Leominster, Massachusetts in the French-Canadian section of the town called French Hill.

[4] In a few of his books, Cormier's hometown of Leominster became the fictional town of Monument, and its village of French Hill became Frenchtown.

[6] Cormier became a full-time writer after the success of his first adult novel for teenagers, Now and at the Hour (1960);[3] others followed, such as The Chocolate War and After the First Death.

[8] The Chocolate War has been challenged in various libraries and schools for its language and its depictions of sexual activity, secret societies, and anarchic students.