R. A. Montgomery was born in Connecticut in 1936. He graduated from Williams College and attended graduate school at Yale University and New York University. In 1975, he co-founded Vermont Crossroads Press to publish books for young readers. In 1977, the Choose Your Own Adventure series started when he published Ed Packard's interactive children's book Sugarcane Island. He wrote the second book in the series, Journey Under the Sea, using the pen name Robert Mountain. After selling his interest in the publishing house, he took the series to Bantam, where he, Packard, and others wrote the books. In 2000, Bantam stopped publishing new books in the series. In 2003, Montgomery and his wife founded Chooseco, which re-launched the series. He wrote over fifty books for the series including Gus vs. the Robot King, which was published in September 2014. He died on November 9, 2014 at the age of 78.