Marvin Terban - Biography

Biography

Marvin Terban was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts and got his start as an author with a book that he wrote and drew in the first grade about a fuzzy green dragon. His first real writing job was a weekly column for his local newspaper, The Chelsea Record, when he was in high school. He was also the editor of his high school newspaper and literary magazine. He went to Tufts and Columbia Universities, where he received Bachelor's and Master's degrees respectively. For over 40 years, he has taught English, Latin, Public Speaking, Computer, Theater, and other subjects at the Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.

Early in his teaching career, Terban took a break to produce audio-visual educational programs for children at the New York City public television station and CBS. Returning to the classroom with renewed energy, he developed teaching games that used humor to help students understand and enjoy the mystifying idiosyncrasies of the English language. Those games grew into the highly original series of funny books on English for which he is known.

Terban's books have made it as far as Shanghai University in China, where they are used to teach English to adults. His Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms has been translated into Japanese and Korean. Two of his books were turned into early computer games. He and his wife Karen, a former special education instructor, also wrote two activity books for teachers. Three of his Scholastic books, Checking Your Grammar, Dictionary of Idioms, and Dictionary of Spelling, have sold well over one million copies each. In 2005, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, an international organization of over 20,000 creators of children's books, voted Mr. Terban their Member of the Year.

Terban has acted in local community theater plays to raise money for charitable causes. He has also had small parts in movies directed by Woody Allen. For many summers he directed plays at Cejwin Camps in Port Jervis, New York. He has paid "Meet the Author" visits to schools, colleges, and educational conferences all over the United States, South America, Europe, Israel, and Japan. Marvin and Karen Terban live in New York City in a rambling apartment across from Central Park. They have two children, David and Jennifer, and a granddaughter.