To say that the writer Howard Roger Garis was prolific is an understatement. To say, as some have, that he was a literary hack or a "fiction machine" is to demean the man who created countless hours of literary enjoyment for generations of American children who eagerly devoured his popular boys' adventure series, his animal stories, and, most of all, his Uncle Wiggily stories. In all, in his eighty-nine years of life, this New Jersey craftsman wrote nearly one hundred and fifty books for children under his own name, and nearly as many under various pseudonyms while writing for the Edward Stratemeyer syndicate. Garis's niche in the history of American fiction for children is firmly carved with his contribution of the immortal rabbit gentleman, Uncle Wiggily, who, from his initial appearance in 1910, achieved a level of popularity among children that has rarely been matched in this century. The stories of the rabbit and his improbable predicaments, at times rough and not always of a high literary nature, spawned radio programs, a successful children's board game, cartoon features, and numerous storybooks still selling in the 1980s.
