Robert Lawrence Stine was born in 1943 in Columbus, Ohio. At age 9 he began writing short stories and jokes, mostly, which he would share with friends. Stine reports that his mother would often beg him to play outside but he preferred to stay indoors and write. This preference obviously paid off when he began writing children’s humor magazines for Scholastic in the 1970s. After losing his job at Scholastic due to no fault of his own, Stine began writing independently. This is when he began his very famous horror series Fear Street which was intended for teen audiences.
In 1992, Stine began writing Goosebumps books and they took off like rockets!
Kids the world over were reading the books as fast as they could and were eager for new tales.
Over 350 million copies of the Goosebumps series were sold making R.L. Stine one of the most successful children’s authors of all time. Eventually Stine was writing one book each month and the entrancing reads were adapted for TV shows. Children growing up in the 1990s were enthralled with all things Goosebumps from books and backpacks to toys and school supplies. This fascination with all things Goosebumps is still going strong.