Call Number:

92-6-2

Repository:

Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center

Extent:

2 linear feet (2 boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Raymond Joseph Cormier Papers, 92-6-2, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Date:

1968-1982 (inclusive)

Form:

Books, Correspondence, Manuscripts, Photocopies, Proofs, and Publications (documents)

Abstract:

Raymond Joseph Cormier was Associate Professor, 1972-1978, and Professor of French, 1978-1983 at Temple University, and chairman of the Department of French and Italian from 1973 to 1975. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1938 and received his A.B. from the University of Bridgeport in 1960. He returned to his undergraduate alma mater to receive the Doctor of Letters degree, honoris causa, in 1980. He received the A.M. degree from Stanford University in 1962 and the Ph.D. in French and Celtic in 1967 after studying at the Sorbonne, 1962-1963, and having been a University Scholar and fellow at Harvard University, 1963-1965. He taught as an Instructor at Tufts University (1965-1967), then as Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia (1967-1972) before coming to Temple.

As past-president and co-founder of the International Courtly Literature Society, he was the Managing Editor of Encomia, the Society's Bibliographical Bulletin. Professor Cormier was active in the Modern Language Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity, having been an officer of this group as well as of the national organization. While teaching in Charlotteville, Virginia he was also the founder and past-president of the University of Virginia Medieval Circle (1968-1972). He is a scholar of medieval comparative literature, publishing several books and articles on the Aeneid, Arthurian folklore, Celtic myths and tales from antiquity. Professor Cormier's continuing interest in Celtic literature led to a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Celtic, University of Edinburgh, Scotland (fall term, 1972) while holding simultaneously a Sesquicentennial Associateship from The University of Virginia, and, a readership in the Celtic Library, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies (April-August 1977).

Professor Cormier's papers contain the manuscripts and corrected proofs of articles, about one-third of them written in French. His interest in and advocacy for the study of foreign languages led to several newspaper articles about his unorthodox style of teaching adapted from the method developed by John A. Rassias of Dartmouth College, and the importance of the study of languages. His articles and letters to the editor of The New York Times ("Survie Apres Babel:I" and "Survival After Babel: II") brought him a wide range of correspondence from educators and business executives supporting the need for this study. Another segment of his papers include book reviews and two fiction articles he wrote.

Professor Cormier's article, "Remarques sur le Roman d'Eneas et l'Erec et Enide de Chrétien de Troyes," published in Revue des Lanques Romanes (1976) is in the collection in several successive forms. This was the object of a charge of plagiarism which was rejected in a legal arbitration suit in 1984.

Each series includes correspondence to and copies of letters from Prof. Cormier concerning publication and other professional matters. The materials are arranged alphabetically by title within the first three series and chronologically within the fourth series. Most offprints are in the Temple Author Reprint collection; three of Prof. Cormier's books are in the Templana Collection of Faculty Writers. Newspaper clippings have been photocopied using acid-free paper.