History
Mad Libs was invented in 1953 by Leonard Stern and Roger Price. Stern and Price co-created the game, but couldn't agree on a name for their invention. No name was chosen until five years later (1958), when Stern and Price were eating eggs Benedict at a restaurant in New York City. While eating, the two overheard a argument at a neighboring table between between a talent agent and an actor. According to Price and Stern, during the overheard argument, the actor said that he wanted to "ad-lib" an upcoming interview. The agent, who clearly disagreed with the actor's suggestion, retorted that ad-libbing an interview would be "mad." Stern and Price used that eavesdropped conversation to finally create the name "Mad Libs." The duo released the first Mad Libs book themselves in 1958. The first Mad Libs resembled the earlier games of Consequences and Exquisite Corpse.
Stern and Price next partnered with Larry Sloan, a high school friend who was working as a publicist at the time, to continue publishing Mad Libs. Together, the three founded the publishing firm Price Stern Sloan in the early 1960s as a way to release Mad Libs. Price Stern Sloan became the one of the largest publishing houses on the West Coast of the United States during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In addition to releasing more than 70 editions of Mad Libs under Sloan, the company also published 150 softcover books, including such notable titles as How to Be a Jewish Mother, first released in 1964; Droodles, which was also created by Roger Price; The VIP Desk Diary; and the series, World's Worst Jokes.
Mad Libs co-creator Roger Price died in 1990. Larry Sloan and Leonard Stern sold Price Stern Sloan, including Mad Libs, to the former Putnam Berkley Group, which is now known as Penguin Group, in 1993. Mad Libs books are still published by Price Stern Sloan, a division of the Penguin Group.
More than 110 million copies of Mad Libs have been sold since the game series was first published in 1958.
Leonard B. Stern died on June 7, 2011. Mad Libs publisher and Price Stern Sloan co-founder Larry Sloan died on October 14, 2012.
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