Howard Roger Garis ((1873-04-25)April 25, 1873 – (1962-11-06)November 6, 1962) was an American author, best known for a series of books that featured the character of Uncle Wiggily Longears, an engaging elderly rabbit. Many of his books were illustrated by Lansing Campbell. Garis and his wife, Lilian Garis, were possibly the most prolific children's authors of the early 20th century.
Garis was born in Binghamton, New York. He and his spouse Lilian Garis both worked as reporters for the Newark Evening News. He did some work on the side for WNJR also in Newark.
The first Uncle Wiggily story appeared in January 1910 in the Newark News. For 37 years the newspaper published an Uncle Wiggily story by Garis every day except Sunday, and the series was eventually nationally syndicated. By the time Garis retired from the newspaper in 1947, he had written more than 11,000 Uncle Wiggily stories.
In 1916 Milton Bradley began selling the Uncle Wiggily Game. In 1987 Parker Brothers bought the rights to the board game and produced it for many years. As of 2018 Winning Moves was manufacturing the Uncle Wiggily Game.
Garis wrote many books for the Stratemeyer Syndicate under various pseudonyms. As Victor Appleton, he wrote about the enterprising Tom Swift; as Laura Lee Hope, he is generally credited with writing volumes 4–28 and 41 of the Bobbsey Twins; as Clarence Young, the Motor Boys series; as Lester Chadwick, the Baseball Joe series; and as Marion Davidson, a number of books including several featuring the Camp Fire Girls. The couple's children also wrote for Stratemeyer.
After Edward Stratemeyer's death in May 1930, his two daughters, Harriet Stratemeyer Adams (1892–1982) and Edna C. Squier (1895–1974), ran the company, with the result that Garis stopped writing for the Syndicate around 1933 after several disagreements.
Garis moved to Amherst, Massachusetts in 1950, and died there in 1962.
Garis' son, Roger Garis, penned a biography of the writing Garis family My Father Was Uncle Wiggily (McGraw-Hill, 1966), as well as writing several books under his own name and pseudonyms, including a four-volume series of children's adventures/mysteries for A. L. Burt. His daughter, Cleo F. also wrote a three-volume series of children's mysteries, published by A. L. Burt. His granddaughter, Leslie Garis, wrote a more revealing Garis family memoir, The House of Happy Endings (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007).
Titles written under Garis's name
With Force and Arms, J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company, 1902
The King of Unadilla, J. S. Ogilvie Publishing Company, 1903
The White Crystals, Little, Brown and Company, 1904
Isle of Black Fire, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1904
Tam of the Fire Cave, D. Appleton and Company, 1927
Tuftoo the Clown, D. Appleton and Company, 1928
Chad of Knob Hill, Little, Brown and Company, 1929
Written under Howard R. Garis, and published by Bradley
Mystery Boys in Ghost Canyon, 1930