Howard R. Garis was born on April 25, 1873 in Binghamton, New York. He became one of the most prolific American authors of all time, perhaps being best known for authoring more than 18,000 Uncle Wiggily stories. Garis also wrote many other series, some under pseudonyms. He wrote the Tom Swift series under the name Victor Appleton, The Bobbsey Twins under the name Laura Lee Hope, the Motor Boys series as Clarence Young, the Baseball Joe series as Lester Chadwick, and the Camp Fire Girls series as Marion Davidson. He also wrote the Teddy Series, the Happy Home series, the Rocket Rider series, the Buddy series, the Curlytops series, the Bed Time series and the Circus Animal series. There were also numerous other one-off books. Garis wrote a new Uncle Wiggily story six days a week for the Newark News from 1910 until 1947 when he retired from the newspaper. However, he didn't stop writing and publishing his stories in book form. There were a total of 79 volumes of Uncle Wiggily stories, plus numerous other collections and single works. His wife, Lilian Garis was also a prolific writer. Between the two of them, and their children, the family authored more than 1,000 books. Howard R. Garis died on November 6, 1962 in Amherst, Massachusetts.