R.L. Stine, the Ohio-born author behind Goosebumps, drew a sellout crowd to Cincinnati’s Downtown Main Library earlier this month, with horror fans young and old. Tickets for the October 15 talk sold out after going on sale in September, and the demand speaks to just how far the reach of Stine’s scary stories has traveled since he started writing them decades ago in central Ohio.
The event was funded through the Eva Jane Romaine Coombe Fund via The Library Foundation, according to the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, which organized the live talk and a book signing for select ticket holders. As reported by Axios, Stine entertained the packed crowd with stories from his career, including a memory of a Baltimore teacher who asked him for a photo because her children thought he was dead. He also read Shel Silverstein’s poem “Haunted” and named “The Haunted Mask” as his favorite Goosebumps story, Axios reported.
A Homecoming Rooted in Ohio Childhood Memories
Stine told the crowd he was a poor kid in Columbus, Ohio, growing up, and his path to horror writing started close to home. He discovered Tales from the Crypt comics at his hometown barbershop in Columbus and read Ray Bradbury at a nearby library, according to the same Axios account. Those early influences trace back even further: Britannica says Stine was born in Columbus on October 8, 1943; Ohio State identifies him as a Bexley native and says he was nine when he began using a typewriter.
Stine also spent part of his childhood visiting his grandparents in Cincinnati, developing an appreciation for the city’s hills along the way, Axios reported. Not every memory was fond — he recalled experiencing heartburn at age six after eating a meal cooked in chicken fat at his grandmother’s home, per the same account. He also recalled those childhood trips while speaking to the Cincinnati crowd.
The Beast Roller Coaster Inspired Two Novels
Stine wrote two books inspired by The Beast, the wooden roller coaster at Kings Island in Mason, and said he rode it twice, calling it one of the great wooden roller coasters, according to Axios. His 1994 novel “The Beast” follows two cousins who sneak onto a haunted roller coaster after dark and travel back in time, according to Simon & Schuster, and he followed it with a sequel, “The Beast 2,” in 1995…