Leo Rosten was born in Brooklyn, New York, on September 29, 1917. He was raised in Los Angeles and attended the University of California at Los Angeles. He was drafted into the Army during World War II and stationed in Kansas. After his discharge, he returned to school at the University of California at Santa Barbara where he earned his B.A
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degree. Rosten began writing his first book during this time; he finished the manuscript for his first book, "My Father's Life" (1958), while attending graduate school at the University of Minnesota. The book was rejected by several publishers until it was published by Simon & Schuster (now part of CBS) in 1963; it went on to become a bestseller and went through four printings.
It is now available as an e-book. His other books include "The Golden Spider" (1956), "The Spider Strikes Back" (1957), "The Spider Stalks His Own Daughter" (1960), "The Amazing Spider" (1965), "The Amazing Spider Returns" (1968), "The Amazing Spider Strikes Again" (1969), "The Amazing Spider's Return to the Big Time" (1969), "Spider on Ice" (1971), "Spider on Ice Returns" (1973), "Spider Goes to Hollywood" (1976) and more than 300 others. He also wrote more than 300 columns for various newspapers and literary journals including The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times Syndicate, The San Francisco Examiner, The Boston Globe Syndicate, The Chicago Sun Times Syndicate, The New York Daily News Syndicate and many others.
He wrote several screenplays including the screenplay for the film, "Cockfighter." His book, "One Man's Family," an autobiography about his family's history of over 150 years of America is available through Simon & Schuster as an e-book.