Robert Lawrence Stine (born October 8, 1943), known as R. L. Stine, and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American writer. Stine, who is called the "Stephen King of children's literature," is the author of hundreds of horror fiction novels, including the books in the Fear Street, Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, and The Nightmare Room series. Some of his other works include a Space Cadets trilogy, two Hark gamebooks, and dozens of joke books. R. L. Stine's books have sold over 400 million copies as of 2008.

Stine was born in Columbus, Ohio on October 8, 1943 to Jewish parents, Anne Stine, a homemaker and Lewis Stine, a shipping clerk. He began writing at age 9 when he found a typewriter in his attic, subsequently beginning to type stories and joke books. He graduated from The Ohio State University (OSU) in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. While at OSU, R. L. Stine edited the OSU humor magazine, The Sundial, for three out of his four years there. He later moved to New York City to pursue his career as a writer. He wrote dozens of humor books for kids under the pen name Jovial Bob Stine and created the humor magazine Bananas.