Stephen Cosgrove was born and raised in the Northwest. In 1973, while working as vice president of an investment company, he went to a bookstore to buy a book for his three-year-old daughter. He was looking for a fun-to-read story that contained a subtle message, but instead found very little of the content that he wanted. Consequently, he decided to write his own stories. Influenced by his childhood love of Aesop's Fables, his first story and all the books that followed reflect a sense of value in the plot and their natural positive resolutions. Teaming with Seattle illustrator Robin James, Cosgrove went on to created four titles that became the foundation of his Serendipity series (over 80 million sold); however, the moral reflections within the books caused them to be rejected by publishers. Finally, in response, Cosgrove founded Serendipity Press. Years later, Cosgrove merged his thriving publishing company with Penguin/Putnam and focused his efforts on writing and the creation of multimedia events for children.