Raymond Almiran Montgomery[1] (born 1936) is an American author and key figure in the Choose Your Own Adventure interactive children's book series.
Contents |
Born in Connecticut, Montgomery graduated from Williams College[2] and attended graduate school at Yale University and New York University (NYU).
Montgomery was one of the most prolific authors in the Choose Your Own Adventure series, created in the late 1970s. Working from a book manuscript written by Edward Packard, he and his then partner/wife, (Constance Cappel[2]) published four books at Vermont Crossroads Press that would later be included in the Bantam "Choose" series (The Cave of Time, Journey Under the Sea, By Balloon to the Sahara, and Space and Beyond). Montgomery penned more than 50 books for this series and its various offspring, including books in a series for younger readers.
The Choose Your Own Adventure series published 184 titles through Bantam Books between 1979 and 1998, including many by Montgomery himself and several by his sons Ramsey and Anson. It was one of the most popular children’s series of all time, with over 250 million books in print. Since its original publication, the series has been popular with both reluctant and advanced readers. It has also been used in classrooms from elementary school to college. At the advent of the Internet age, the series was used frequently in curricula focused on explaining the interactivity of the world wide web to young children.
Montgomery and partner Shannon Gilligan are currently reissuing some books of the initial "Choose" series through Chooseco LLC, in Waitsfield, Vermont. The re-release has been featured in the LA Times and Newsweek magazine, and an electronic version of the first book in the relaunch, The Abominable Snowman, is available as an interactive download for iPod. He is currently rewriting a 450 page draft of a novel about modern day China. Montgomery has said that he would like to travel and encourage culturally distinct Choose Your Own Adventure books from writers and illustrators in all parts of the world.[1]