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.
Uncle Wiggily The first
Uncle Wiggily story appeared January 10, 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.
Stratemeyer Syndicate 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 in 1935 after several disagreements.
Death Garis moved to
Amherst, Massachusetts in 1950, and died there in 1962. ==Biographies==