He was 82 and lived in Bucks County. He died in Pennsylvania on Saturday, said Audra Boltion, a spokeswoman for HarperCollins Children's Books in New York.
In more than 200 books, the Berenstain Bears, written and illustrated by Stan and Jan Berenstain, helped children for 40 years cope with trips to the dentist, eating junk food and cleaning their messy rooms.
The first Berenstain Bears book, "The Great Honey Hunt," was published in 1962. The couple developed the series with children's author Theodor Geisel -- better known as Dr. Seuss, then head of children's publishing at Random House -- with the goal of teaching children to read while entertaining them.
Despite changes in society in the last four decades, little has changed in "Bears Country."
"Kids still tell fibs and they mess up their rooms and they still throw tantrums in the supermarket," Stan Berenstain told The Associated Press in 2002. "Nobody gets shot. No violence. There are problems, but they're the kind of typical family problems everyone goes through."
Stan and Jan Berenstain began drawing together when they met at Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art in 1941.
The two married soon after he got out of World War II-era Army service and began submitting cartoons to magazines. They became contributors to The Saturday Evening Post, McCalls and Collier's.
They got into the book business when an editor at a New York publishing house who enjoyed their magazine cartoons asked if they would like to do a book, according to their Web site.
Their sons Leo and Michael joined them, and many of the recent books are credited collectively to "The Berenstains."
The characters are the subject of their own public television program, DVDs and a Christmas musical.
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What a shame. Half of the team that wrote my childhood is gone. RIP.
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 3 December 2005 03:53 (twenty years ago)
― firstworldman (firstworldman), Saturday, 3 December 2005 04:15 (twenty years ago)
― JD from CDepot, Saturday, 3 December 2005 04:18 (twenty years ago)
― estela (estela), Saturday, 3 December 2005 04:34 (twenty years ago)
― Big Loud Mountain Ape (Big Loud Mountain Ape), Saturday, 3 December 2005 16:05 (twenty years ago)
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Saturday, 3 December 2005 16:07 (twenty years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 3 December 2005 16:09 (twenty years ago)
this feels like a weird post to revive but it's the only one that gets a hit when i search, and this current internet obsession with how it isn't spelled berenstein is hitting me hard. my memory completely duped me, i felt creeped out as hell when i saw images of the correct spelling.
― Bouncy Castlevania (Will M.), Thursday, 13 August 2015 05:25 (ten years ago)
i need to scan the surface of my picture-disc LP from 1982, with reference to, no lie, "BARENSTAIN" though this seems to be a typo since in the art itself it's signed Berenstain.
these books are totally classic btw. i longed for the awesome clubhouses in "no girls allowed." and the stage fright one was much quoted around the house, with the sarcastic: "why don't you try standing on your head?" i had a sister bear doll which was my favorite stuffed animal for at least a year or two there.
― Gorefest Frump (Doctor Casino), Thursday, 13 August 2015 06:50 (ten years ago)
I guess everybody knows already about the collision with the alternative universe, the one that didn't just blow up both universes but can only be seen in hindsight, because people are substituting an e for an a? & are co0nvinced that's the way it's always been.Not sure how well known these creatures are outside the USA so does that indicate something else?
― Stevolende, Thursday, 13 August 2015 09:13 (ten years ago)
Don't know how much of a thing they were in general over here but Bears in the Night was my jam.
What is this cover revisionism though?
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vhmohXxKdvc/hqdefault.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yQ4aTrYhL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
― ledge, Thursday, 13 August 2015 11:40 (ten years ago)
Why snub-nose chunky-foot and shifty-grin all the bears?
"Cover art (c) 2002 by Berenstain Enterprises, Inc."- that 'Enterprises, Inc' is suspicious.
― ledge, Thursday, 13 August 2015 11:44 (ten years ago)
I recently had the exact same reaction, Will. I don't know how I failed to notice the 'STAIN' until recently, but it was jarring. I think someone is toying around with the past.
I wish I still had this tape I made forever ago of my brother at the age of three or so making up a song about the BerenSTAIN Bears which ended: 'Berenstain Bears is on its way/And I have to go potty for pretend'.
― Gristly Bear (Old Lunch), Thursday, 13 August 2015 12:53 (ten years ago)
I had completely forgot about this one,
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61eOT9oSBrL.jpg
where Papa Bear goes hella racist for a book
― Purves Grundy (kingfish), Thursday, 13 August 2015 13:14 (ten years ago)
http://chinesebooksforchildren.com/images/bookcovers/9787537147729-8.jpg
― Purves Grundy (kingfish), Thursday, 13 August 2015 13:15 (ten years ago)