Rodman Philbrick is an American writer of novels for adults and children. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and currently lives in Maine and Florida. He and Lynn Harnett were married from 1980 until her death in 2012. They collaborated on scary books for young readers, including The House on Cherry Street, The Werewolf Chronicles, and Visitors, three trilogies published by Scholastic in 1995, 1996, and 1997. Philbrick has also written using the pen names W. R. Philbrick, William R. Dantz, and Chris Jordan.
Two of his most popular children's books are Freak the Mighty and its sequel, Max the Mighty. Freak the Mighty was the basis of a Golden Globe-nominated movie titled simply The Mighty, released in 1998.
Philbrick has also written the cyberpunk, dystopian novel entitled The Last Book in the Universe and the science fantasy novel REM World. Other works for young readers include The Young Man and the Sea which is dedicated to his nieces Annie and Molly, and The Fire Pony, about two brothers on the run in the American West. The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg, set in the American Civil War, was named a Newbery Honor Book in 2010.