R.A. Montgomery, the creator and sometimes author of the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books for children, has died at age 78. The Choose Your Own Adventure series is the 4th best-selling children’s book series in publishing history. Montgomery lived a full-life: a graduate of Williams College, he worked at the Wall Street Journal, was the Assistant Dean of Faculty at Columbia University and founded The Waitsfield Summer School in Vermont before settling on publishing and writing. Montgomery was an influential educator, creating pioneering role-playing games that taught children cooperation in real world situations. He saw many of these initiatives through to the personal computer era, becoming an Apple computer evangelist.
Montgomery and his first wife, Constance Cappel, founded Vermont Crossroads Press in 1975. It was from here that the idea for the Adventure books was born. Bantam took over the series, changing the title from the Adventures of You to Choose Your Own Adventure. The Choose Your Own Adventure books sold more than 250 million copies in 40 languages.
