GEORGE EDWARD STANLEY

Professor of African and Middle-Eastern Languages and Linguistics

Department of English & Foreign Languages
Cameron University
Office: Nance Boyer 2025
Voice: 580.581.5525
FAX: 580.581.2897
Email: georges@cameron.edu
 

George Edward Stanley has lived all over Europe and Africa, studying and teaching foreign languages, working for the U.S. government, and writing books for young people and adults.   

In fact, it was while he was a Fulbright professor in Chad, in central Africa, that Stanley began writing fiction.  About the only diversion he found available in that nation's capital city of N'Djamena was listening to the BBC on his short wave radio.  That led to his writing radio plays for a program called World Service Short Story.  Three of his plays were eventually produced. 

After returning to the United States, Stanley continued to write and publish adult stories, all of which were set in Africa. 

When he married, Stanley gained two brothers-in-law, who were members of the Detroit Police Department.  As a result, he had access to a lot of sources for learning about how police use science to solve crimes, a subject he'd always been interested in.  It was during this time that Stanley wrote his first children's short story, "The Saliva Solution," based on the solving of an actual crime.  CHILD LIFE MYSTERY AND SCIENCE-FICTION MAGAZINE bought it and asked him to do a series.  Over the next several years, Stanley wrote several series for CHILD LIFE, CHILDREN’S PLAYMATE, HEALTH EXPLORER, HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN, JACK AND JILL, TURTLE, and other magazines in this field.

After writing and publishing over 200 short stories in American, British, Irish, and South African magazines and linguistics articles in major international journals, Stanley turned to writing books.  He has, to date, written 100 books for young people and one book on writing, WRITING SHORT STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, published by Writer's Digest Books.

Stanley is the author of many best-selling scary books for young people, including RATS IN THE ATTIC (a New York Public Library Best Books for the Teen Age) and HAPPY DEATHDAY TO YOU, both Avon/Flare titles.  He also helped develop Avon's SPINETINGLERS, a horror series for middle-graders, under the pseudonym M.T. Coffin, and wrote many of the titles: BILLY BAKER'S DOG WON'T STAY BURIED, WHERE HAVE ALL THE PARENTS GONE?, CHECK IT OUT AND DIE!, DON'T GO TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE, THE DEAD KID DID IT, PET STORE, THE HAUNTED MUSEUM, WE WISH YOU A SCARY CHRISTMAS, THE CURSE OF THE CHEERLEADERS, and CIRCUS F.R.E.A.K.S.

Stanley is also the author of SCAREDY CATS, a series of first chapter books for first, second, and third graders, published by Simon & Schuster: THE DAY THE ANTS GOT REALLY MAD, BUGS FOR BREAKFAST, THERE'S A SHARK IN THE SWIMMING POOL, MRS. O'DELL'S THIRD GRADE CLASS IS SHRINKING, WHO INVITED ALIENS TO MY SLUMBER PARTY?, THE NEW KID IN SCHOOL IS A VAMPIRE BAT, A WEREWOLF FOLLOWED ME HOME, and THE VAMPIRE KITTENS OF COUNT DRACULA.  SCAREDY CATS received rave reviews in the press.  SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL called it "immensely entertaining" and the Associated Press said that Stanley will "give R.L. Stine (the author of the GOOSEBUMPS series) a run for his money."

Another chapter book series written by Stanley appeared in 1999: THE KATIE LYNN COOKIE COMPANY, about a girl who starts a cookie company.  The four titles in this series, published by Random House, as part of its Stepping Stone Series, are THE SECRET INGREDIENT, FROGS LEGS FOR DINNER, THE BATTLE OF THE BAKERS, and WEDDING COOKIES.

GHOST HORSE and SNAKE CAMP, first chapter books, were published in 2000 by Golden Books, as part of its Road to Reading Series.  This was followed by WILD HORSES, another first chapter book in the same series.  All three titles have been rebranded and re-released by Random House as part of the company’s Stepping Stones series. WILD HORSES sold to two Scholastic Book Clubs. 

In 2002, Stanley developed a series for Random House about a third grader who’s a secret agent.  The first title, ADAM SHARP - THE SPY WHO BARKED, was published in the spring of 2002.  It was followed in the fall of 2002 by ADAM SHARP - LONDON CALLING and in the spring of 2003 by ADAM SHARP - SWIMMING WITH SHARKS.  ADAM SHARP - OPERATION SPY SCHOOL appeared in the fall of 2003 and ADAM SHARP - MOOSE MASTER in the spring of 2004.  ADAM SHARP - CODEWORD KANGAROO appeared in the fall of 2004.  The Adam Sharp titles were also offered through several Scholastic school book clubs.

Simon & Schuster began publishing a new chapter book series by Stanley in 2000 called THIRD GRADE DETECTIVES.  The ten titles are: THE CLUE OF THE LEFT-HANDED ENVELOPE, THE PUZZLE OF THE PRETTY PINK HANDKERCHIEF, THE HAIRY TOMATO MYSTERY, THE COBWEB CONFESSION, THE RIDDLE OF THE STOLEN SAND, THE SECRET OF THE GREEN SKIN, THE CASE OF THE DIRTY CLUE, THE SECRET OF THE WOODEN WITNESS, THE CASE OF THE SWEATY BANK ROBBER, and THE MYSTERY OF THE STOLEN STATUE.  The THIRD GRADE DETECTIVE titles were also offered through several Scholastic school book clubs.

As part of its popular CHILDHOOD OF FAMOUS AMERICANS series, Simon & Schuster/Aladdin Paperbacks published Stanley’s GERONIMO in 2001 and ANDREW JACKSON in 2003.  HARRY S. TRUMAN and MR. ROGERS followed in 2004.  CRAZY HORSE was published in 2005, and DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER in 2006.  Dr. Stanley has also written two titles for Simon & Schuster’s CHILDHOOD OF WORD FIGURES series.  POPE JOHN PAUL II and LEONARDO DA VINCI were published in 2006.  GEORGE S. PATTON appeared in 2007.  FREDERICK DOUGLASS will appear in 2008 and CORETTA SCOTT KING will appear in 2009. 

In 2005, Dr. Stanley write an eight-volume Primary Source History of the United States for Gareth-Stevens, a World Almanac company: The European Settlement of North America, The New Republic, The Crisis of the Union, The Era of Reconstruction and Expansion, An Emerging World Power, The Great Depression and World War II, America and the Cold War, and America in Today’s World. 

Starting in 2008 and continuing into 2011, Sterling Publishing Company, part of Barnes & Noble Booksellers, will publish Dr. Stanley’s A HISTORY OF ESPIONAGE, MEDICAL MYSTERIES and biographies of DAVY CROCKETT, SITTING BULL, BILLY THE KID, and GANDHI. 

THE IMPERIAL WIZARD LIVES NEXT DOOR, a middle-grade novel about a young boy’s involvement with the Ku Klux Klan in Lawton, Oklahoma, in the early 1920s, will be published in hardcover by Simon & Schuster/Aladdin Books in 2009.          

Stanley is also working on several other books for young people, as well as textbooks for teaching Arabic, Hausa, Indonesian, Persian, Swahili, and Urdu.

Dr. Stanley is a Professor of African and Middle-Eastern Languages and Linguistics in the Department of Foreign Languages at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma.  He has been teaching adults to write since 1965.  In addition, he teaches foreign languages.  At one time or another he has taught all the Germanic and Romance languages, in addition to Afar, Albanian, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bemba, Czech, Dari, Hausa, Indonesian, Javanese, Kazakh, Kikongo, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Lingala, Malay, Oromo, Pashto, Persian, Polish, Russian, Somali, Swahili, Tagalog, Tausug, Tajik, Turkish, Turkmen, Uighur, Urdu, Uzbek, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu.                   

Stanley is an active member of the African Language Teachers Association, the American Association of Teachers of Arabic, the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages,  the American Association of Teachers of Persian, the American Association of Teachers of Turkic Languages, the American Institute for Yemeni Studies, the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (life member), and the Syrian Studies Association.

Stanley says he is constantly thinking about stories and books to write.  Quite often, he wakes up in the middle of the night with the plot of a story.  When that happens, he gets up immediately to make notes about it.