October 8: The Stephen King of Children’s Literature

R.L. (Robert Lawrence) Stine, the author of the Goosebumps series and hundreds of horror and fantasy novels for adolescents, was born in Columbus, Ohio on this date in 1943. “I was a very fearful child,” he has said, “and when I write I try to remember that feeling of panic.” Between 1975 and 1984 Stine created and edited Bananas, a humor magazine for teens, and wrote dozens of humor books for Scholastic Books, before turning to horror in 1986 with the novel Blind Date, an instant best-seller. More than 400 million copies of his books have sold over the years, and video games and a television series have been based upon his work. Among his novels for adults are Superstitious (1995), Eye Candy, (2004) and Red River (2012). “When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called Tales From The Crypt and The Vault of Horror. They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous. I used to get a haircut every Saturday so I wouldn’t miss any of these comic books. I had no hair at all when I was a kid!” —R.L. Stine