Howard Roger Garis was born in Birmingham, New York. His father was a railroad employee, and at the age of sixteen, he also obtained a job with the Erie Lackawanna Railroad in Newark, New Jersey. In his downtime in the baggage department, he began to write poems and short stories. In 1900, when his father died, he started his writing career as a journalist, working for the Newark Evening News, continuing to write fiction at the same time. He met and, in 1900, married a fellow Newark Evening News journalist Lilian McNamara. His first published novel, With Force and Arms: A Tale of Love and Salem Witchcraft (1902), was not successful, but his next two novels, Isle of Black Fire and The White Crystals, both published in 1904, were. He wrote a series of stories called the Professor Jonkin series, the first of which, "Professor Jonkin's Cannibal Plant," appeared in the boys' pulp magazine Argosy in 1905. In 1906, began writing for the Stratemeyer Syndicate, producing Tom Swift books under the house pseudonym "Victor Appleton"; Bobbsey Twins books (#4-28 and #41) under the pseudonym "Laura Lee Hope"; the Motor Boys series under the pseudonym "Clarence Young"; the Great Marvel series under the pseudonym "Lester Chadwick"; and several Camp Fire Girls books under the pseudonym "Marion Davidson". His wife eventually joined the ghostwriting team, and wrote the Motor Girls series under the pseudonym "Margaret Penrose". In 1910, he introduced his most famous character, Uncle Wiggily, in the Newark Evening News. A compilation of these stories was published as Uncle Wiggily's Adventures in 1912. He began to publish other books under his own name, including Larry Dexter and the Bank Mystery (1912), Camp Fire Girls on the Ice (1913), The Curlytops at Uncle Frank's Ranch (1918), Rick and Ruddy; the Story of a Boy and His Dog (1920), Rick and Ruddy on the Trail (1924), and Buddy and His Winter Fun (1929). He continued to work at the Newark Evening News and write fiction until his retirement in 1947. In 1950, he and his wife relocated to Amherst, Massachusetts. His wife Lilian died in 1954.