Robert Norman Munsch (born June 11, 1945) is an American-Canadian children's author. Personal life and career Robert Munsch was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 11, 1945. He grew up in a family of 9 children. He graduated from Fordham University in 1969 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and from Boston University in 1971 with a Master of Arts degree in anthropology. He studied to become a Jesuit priest, but decided he would rather work with children after having jobs at orphanages and daycare centres. In 1973, he received a Master of Education in Child Studies from Tufts University. In 1975, he moved to Canada to work at the preschool at the University of Guelph in Guelph, Ontario. He also taught in the College of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Guelph as a lecturer and as an assistant professor. In Guelph, he was encouraged to publish the many stories he made up for the children he worked with. One of Munsch's best-known books, Love You Forever, was listed fourth on the 2001 Publishers Weekly All-Time Bestselling Children's Books list for paperbacks at 6.97 million copies (not including the 1.049 million hardcover copies). It has since sold more than 30 million copies and has been featured on the episode "The One With the Cake" from the television show Friends, as well as being mentioned by Oprah Winfrey on Late Night with David Letterman as being her favorite children's book. His other famous book The Paper Bag Princess has sold more than seven million copies and is considered to be a feminist story, as well as a literary classic. Munsch and his wife Ann discovered they couldn't have biological children after two pregnancies ended with still-birth. They have three children via adoption. Health Munsch has publicly talked about his bipolar disorder and addiction issues. In August 2008, Munsch suffered a stroke that affected his memory. He has since retired; however, he continues to publish two previously written books each year. On May 15, 2010, Munsch revealed that he has been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive and manic-depressive disorder, and that he had a cocaine addiction that started in 2005 and was a recovering alcoholic; at the time, he had been clean for four months, and had regularly attended Alcoholics Anonymous for the previous 25 years and Narcotics Anonymous meetings more recently. On October 2, 2021, Munsch revealed to