R.L. Stine is a popular children’s author best known for his horror series Goosebumps and Fear Street. He has written more than 300 books and is still writing today!
Even before he was a famous author, Stine liked to write. While growing up in Columbus, he would create his own humor magazines to share with classmates. He liked scary stories but preferred to make people laugh with his own work.
After graduating from Ohio State University, Stine moved to New York to become a writer. He wrote many humorous books and magazines. However, nothing was successful as his first horror novel titled Blind Date.
Since then, many of R.L. Stine’s books have been made into movies and TV shows. Children around the world read his spooky stories in many different languages. He has sold more than 400 million copies of Goosebumps worldwide.
- The first book in the Goosebumps series, titled Welcome to the Dead House, was published in 1992.
- Many of R.L. Stine’s book titles take inspiration from movies the author enjoyed as a child. For example, Night of the Living Dummies instead of Night of the Living Dead and It Came from Beneath the Sink! instead of It Came from Beneath the Sea.
- According to the American Library Association, the Goosebumps books were among the 100 most challenged books of the 1990s.
- While attending Ohio State University, R.L. Stine worked as editor of the school humor magazine called the Sundial. Under his leadership, the magazine was voted the number one student humor magazine in the country.
- Slappy the ventriloquist dummy is the mascot of the Goosebumps series. He debuted in 1993 book Night of the Living Dummy.
- Who Is R.L. Stine, by Jake Murray
- It Came from Ohio: My Life as a Writer, by R.L. Stine
- R.L. Stine: Author with a Flair for Scare, by Martha London