Edward Packard (writer)
Edward Packard (born February 16, 1931) is an American author, creator of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" book concept and author of more than 50 books in the series, as well as many other children’s books. He is also a lawyer, essayist, and poet. Born in Huntington, New York, he is a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School. Packard came up with the original idea of writing second-person fiction, in which the reader makes choices that affects how the story unfolds, while thinking up bedtime stories for his children, who each clamored for  a different ending to his stories. He published the first three books in this genre, originally called "The Adventures of You," after which Bantam Books offered him and his first publisher a contract for a series rebranded and made famous as the "Choose Your Own Adventure" series of children's books. He is the grandfather of actor David Corenswet. Biography. Early career. Packard wrote the first known book of this type, "Sugarcane Island", in 1969, and arranged for it to be published in 1976 by Vermont Crossroads Press, owned by Constance Cappel and Raymond A. Montgomery, Jr. Packard explains in  the foreword to the book that he developed what he originally called "the adventures of you" fiction format while trying to think up interesting bedtime stories for his three children (Caroline, Andrea, and Wells). In "Sugarcane Island", the shipwrecked reader travels around the titular island avoiding dangers at every turn. Many of the possible endings feature an unfortunate demise, although escape from the island is possible if the correct choices are made. Section::::"Choose Your Own Adventure". "The Adventures of You on Sugarcane Island" was the exact prototype for books in Bantam's classic "Choose Your Own Adventure" series. In 1969 , and 1970, the William Morris Agency submitted the book on Packard's behalf to several major publishers, all of whom rejected it. In 1976 Packard was able to get the book published by Vermont Crossroads Press. In its review of the book, "Publishers Weekly" called it "an original idea, well carried out." In 1977–1978, Lippincott published Packard's next two books in the same format, "Deadwood City" and "The Third Planet from Altair". Their covers alerted readers to their unusual nature with the rubrics "Choose Your Own Adventure in the Wild West" and "Choose Your Own Adventure in Outer Space ." Seeing potential in Packard's idea of an "interactive book", Bantam Books launched a series called "Choose Your Own Adventure" in 1979. This contact with Bantam Books was made by Constance Cappel on a flight to the Atlanta ABA Conference with the then Head of Marketing, Jack Romano. Vermont Crossroads Press had first sold the rights to the series to Pocket Books and then had them transferred to Bantam. Packard wrote the first book in the Bantam series, "The Cave of Time", a time-traveling story in which the reader explores a cavern that is a portal to different eras . Along with R. A. Montgomery, his original publisher at Vermont Crossroads Press, Packard wrote many more books in the series, contributing well over 60 titles by 1998, when the series ended. Packard kept the series fresh by changing genres with each title. In addition to the time travel story of the first book, he followed up with the next half-dozen stories based on suspense, spy fiction, space opera, western, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy. Packard himself even appears, in a case of self-insertion, in the "Choose Your Own Adventure" book "Hyperspace". Packard was the only author to have  a consistently recurring character who appeared in many of his CYOA books. A scientist named Dr. Nera Vivaldi frequently appeared as a friend to the reader character. She seemed to be ageless as she appeared in stories set in many time frames, including those that took the reader into outer space, although in later books, she does appear to have aged at least into her fifties. In the aforementioned "Hyperspace", Dr. Vivaldi makes an appearance that actually breaches the fourth wall, acknowledging that she is a fictional character that the reader recognized from other CYOA books. In 2012 Simon & Schuster  began releasing revised and expanded print versions of "Through the Black Hole", "Return to the Cave of Time" and "The Forbidden Castle" under the U-Ventures trademark. Packard also conceived of the idea and wrote the prototype books for three more interactive series: "Space Hawks" and "Escape", both published by Bantam Books, and "Earth Inspectors", published by McGraw Hill. He also wrote a non-fiction book about the size and scale of space and time, titled "Imagining the Universe" and published by Berkley in 1994, which was cited by "Scientific American" as one of the best science books for young  readers of the year and by National Public Radio as one of the best science books of the year. His educational math book "Big Numbers", published by Millbrook in 2000, was cited by "Newsweek" as one of the best children's books of the year. The six books in the "Space Hawks" series, dealing with Earth's defense against space aliens, were published in mainland China in 2004 in anticipation of China's first crewed space mission. Book applications. In 2010, Packard started a new company called U-Ventures, which began releasing Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-style applications for iPhone  and iPad based on some of Packard's books. The first title, "Return to the Cave of Time" was released in August with more titles planned shortly after.