R.L. Stine

The man who turned childhood fears into a global phenomenon of shivers and screams.

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R.L. Stine is the American novelist who created the Goosebumps series, a horror fiction series for children that has sold over 400 million copies globally in 35 languages. Born on October 8, 1943 in Columbus, Ohio, Stine began writing at age nine after finding a typewriter in his attic. He graduated from Ohio State University in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and later moved to New York City to pursue his writing career. Before Goosebumps, Stine wrote dozens of humor books for children under the name Jovial Bob Stine and created the humor magazine Bananas for Scholastic Press.

Quick Facts

Pen name

Jovial Bob Stine; Eric Affabee

Birth name

Robert Lawrence Stine

Born

8 October 1943

Birthplace

Columbus, Ohio, U.S.

Occupation

Novelist

Genre

Children's literature
horror
science fiction
fantasy
humor
thriller
supernatural fiction

Spouse

Jane Waldhorn, June 22, 1969

Children

Lore & Background

Stine's first horror novel was Blind Date, published in 1986, followed by many others including The Babysitter, Beach House, Hit and Run, and The Girlfriend. In 1989, he started writing the Fear Street books, a teen horror fiction series that has sold over 80 million copies. Before launching Goosebumps in 1992 with Parachute Press, Stine authored three humorous science fiction books in the Space Cadets series: Jerks in Training, Bozos on Patrol, and Losers in Space. A Goosebumps TV series ran for four seasons from 1995 to 1998, and three video games were produced: Escape from HorrorLand, Attack of the Mutant, and Goosebumps HorrorLand. Jack Black portrayed a fictionalized version of Stine named R.L. Stine in the 2015 film Goosebumps, while Stine himself made a cameo appearance as a man walking his dog. In the sequel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018), Stine had another cameo as the School Principal.

Reader's Guide

The Goosebumps series began in 1992 when Stine and Parachute Press launched the franchise. The series has sold over 400 million copies globally in 35 languages, becoming the second-best-selling book series in history. The series spawned a media franchise including two television series, a video game series, a comic series, and two feature films. Stine has been referred to as the 'Stephen King of children's literature.' He also wrote the teen horror fiction series Fear Street, which has sold over 80 million copies and has been adapted into a series of films. In three consecutive years during the 1990s, USA Today named Stine as America's number one best-selling author. In 2003, the Guinness Book of World Records named Stine as the best-selling children's book series author of all time. Stine famously types all of his books using only his left index finger, causing the finger to become curved over the years; he jokingly called it 'hideous and totally bent' in 2008.