R. L. Stine
Author of the best-selling Goosebumps children's horror series.
Robert Lawrence Stine, born October 8, 1943, is an American novelist best known for the Goosebumps series, which has sold over 400 million copies globally in 35 languages and is the second-best-selling book series in history. He has been called the 'Stephen King of children's literature' and also created the Fear Street series, which has sold over 80 million copies.
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
- 1
Facts from the source article.
Early life
Stine was born in Columbus, Ohio, into a Jewish family, the son of Lewis Stine, a shipping clerk, and Anne Feinstein. He grew up in Bexley, Ohio. He began writing at age nine after finding a typewriter in his attic, and he credited the Tales from the Crypt comic books as an inspiration. He graduated from Ohio State University in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts in English, having edited the humor magazine The Sundial for three years, then moved to New York City.
Career
Stine wrote dozens of humor books for children under the name Jovial Bob Stine and created the humor magazine Bananas, published by Scholastic Press for 72 issues between 1975 and 1984. In 1986 he wrote his first horror novel, Blind Date, followed by others including The Babysitter, Beach House, Hit and Run, and The Girlfriend. He was co-creator and head writer for the Nickelodeon series Eureeka's Castle. In 1989 he began writing Fear Street books. Before launching Goosebumps in 1992 with Parachute Press, he authored three humorous science fiction books in the Space Cadets series. A Goosebumps TV series ran from 1995 to 1998, and three video games were produced. His first adult novel, Superstitious, was published in 1995, followed by The Sitter, Eye Candy, and Red Rain. In the first decade of the 21st century, he worked on series including Mostly Ghostly, Rotten School, Fear Street, The Nightmare Room, and Goosebumps Horrorland, as well as stand-alone novels Dangerous Girls and The Taste of Night. A direct-to-DVD movie, The Haunting Hour Volume One: Don't Think About It, was released in 2007 and spawned a TV series.
Awards and recognition
Forbes listed Stine 36th among the 40 best-paid entertainers of 1996–97 with an income of $41 million. USA Today named him America's number one best-selling author in three consecutive years during the 1990s. He received the 2002 Champion of Reading Award from the Free Public Library of Philadelphia, the Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Award for Best Book-Mystery/Horror three times, and the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards three times. In 2003 the Guinness Book of World Records named him the best-selling children's book series author of all time. He won the Thriller Writers of America Silver Bullet Award in 2007, the Horror Writers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014, the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2013, and the Inkpot Award in 2017.
Personal life
Stine married editor and writer Jane Waldhorn on June 22, 1969; she co-founded Parachute Press in 1983. Their son Matthew, born 1980, works in the music industry and has a son named Dylan, born 2014. Stine types all his books using only his left index finger, which he has said became curved over the years; he refuses to learn proper typing, believing it would slow him down.
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