Milton Bradley introduced the game in
1916 basing it on American writer
Howard R. Garis (AKA
Victor Appleton) character "Uncle Wiggily Longears," who appeared in the
Newark Evening News and a series of books starting in
1910.
Parker Brothers got the rights to the game in
1967. In
1989 both Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley (then owned by
Hasbro) both relaunched the game. Any legal wranglings were ended when Hasbro acquired Parker Brothers in
1991.
Uncle Wiggily appeared in many stories. Due to reprints and repackaging, this may be an incomplete and/or redundant bibliography. All titles by Howard Garis:
- Uncle Wiggily's Adventures (1912)
- Uncle Wiggily's Travels (1913/1939)
- Uncle Wiggily's Airship (1915)
- Uncle Wiggily in Wonderland (1916/1921)
- Uncle Wiggily in the Country (1916/1940)
- Uncle Wiggily's Arabian Nights (1917)
- Uncle Wiggily on the Farm (1918/1949)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Empty Watch (1919)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Pirates (1919/1924)
- Uncle Wiggily Plays Indian Hunter (1919)
- Uncle Wiggily's Radio (1919)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Snowman (1919)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Snowman (1919)
- Uncle Wiggily and Turkey Gobbler (1919)
- Uncle Wiggily and Mother Goose (1922)
- Uncle Wiggily's Picture Book (1922/1924/1940)
- Uncle Wiggily's June Bug Friends (1922)
- Uncle Wiggily's Woodland Games (1922)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Ringtails (1923)
- Adventures of Uncle Wiggily (1924)
- Uncle Wiggily at the Beach (1924)
- Uncle Wiggily On The Flying Rug (1924)
- Uncle Wiggily's Funny Auto (1924)
- Uncle Wiggily Goes Swimming (1924)
- Uncle Wiggily in Magic Land (1924)
- Uncle Wiggily On Roller Skates (1924)
- Second Adventures of Uncle Wiggily (1925)
- Uncle Wiggily on Sugar Island (1926)
- Uncle Wiggily's Auto Sled (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily and The Beaver Boys (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily's Big Snow Ball (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily's Blow-Up Surprise (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily and The 'Gator Motor (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily and His Friend Jack Frost (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily's Hobolins And Gobolins (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily's Laughing Gas Balloons (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily And The Picnic Pie (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily's Quilting Party (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily and The Sea Urchin (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily's Snow Fort (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily and The Strange Cave Of Ice (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily's Trick Rocking Chair (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily's Water Spout (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily Makes A Willow Whistle (1927)
- Uncle Wiggily's Visit to the Farm (1936)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Apple Dumpling (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily's Automobile (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Barber (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Canoe (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily on the Farm (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily and His Friends (1939/1955)
- Uncle Wiggily Learns to Dance (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Peppermint (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Red Spots (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Snow Plow (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Sleds (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily's Story Book (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Sugar Cookie (1939)
- Uncle Wiggily & His Flying Rug (1940)
- Uncle Wiggily and His Funny Auto (1940)
- Uncle Wiggily Goes Camping (1940)
- Uncle Wiggily's Fortune (1942)
- Uncle Wiggily and Granddaddy Longlegs (1943) (Includes UW and the Red Squirrel, UW and the Brown Wren, UW and the Sunfish, UW and the Yellow Bird, UW and the Sky-cracker, UW and the Buttercup, UW and the July Bug, UW and the Jack-in-the Pulpit, and UW and the Lost Chipmunk)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Paper Boat (1943)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Starfish (1943)
- Uncle Wiggily Starts Off (1943) (Includes UW Goes Fishing, UW and the Crow, UW and Fido Flip-Flop, UW Does Some Tricks, UW at the Party, UW in a Parade, UW in the Fountain, UW and the Bad Dog, UW and the Monkey)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Cowbird (1943)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Red Monkey (1943)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Black Cricket (1943)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Milkman (1943) (Includes
UW's Swimming Lesson, UW in the Bear's Den, UW and the Toadstool, UW and Little Chicken, UW and the Stingery Wasp, UW and the Bluebell, UW and Wibble Wobbles, UW and Berry Bush, UW and the Camp Fire)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Troublesome Boys (1943)
- Uncle Wiggily Coloring Book (1943) (includes UW And The Troublesome Boys, UW In A Balloon, UW in an Automobile, UW in a Motor Boat, UW Makes a Pie, UW and Old Percival, UW In A Well, UW And Jennie Chipmunk, UW and The Paper House.)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Baker Cat (1946)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Picture Book (1946)
- Uncle Wiggily's Happy Days (1947/1976)
- Uncle Wiggily's Fishing Trip (1948) (includes UW at the Marshmallow Roast, UW and the Chestnuts)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Alligator (1953)
- The Uncle Wiggily Book (1955)
(Includes UW and the Apple Dumpling)
- Uncle Wiggily's Adventures (1961)
- Uncle Wiggily's Story Book (1987)
- Uncle Wiggly's Bedtime Stories (Unabridged) (1997)
- Favorite Uncle Wiggly Animal Bedtime Stories (1998)
Dates unknown:
- Uncle Wiggly's Bedtime Stories (Includes UW and the Dentist, UW's Accident, UW and the Lost Chipmunk.)
- Uncle Wiggily and the Cowbird
- Uncle Wiggily and Jackie and Peetie Bow Wow
- Uncle Wiggily and the Littletails
- Uncle Wiggily & Lulu, Alice, Jimmie Wibblewobble
- Uncle Wiggily to the Rescue
- Uncle Wiggily and the Runaway Cheese
- Uncle Wiggily at the Seashore
- Uncle Wiggily and the Will-a-Wong
- Uncle Wiggily and His Woodland Friends
Not having read any of these, I can't vouch for their
literary merit. However, a quick search of the
Berkeley Public Library online
catalog reveals exactly zero Uncle Wiggily books in their collection, which may indicate what the children's librarians in Berkeley think of them.
Sources: Classic American Games, http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~museum/vexhibit/Whitehill/wiggily.html
eBay, http://www.ebay.com/
Roger Garis, My Father was Uncle Wiggily, (1966) excerpted at http://www.ipass.net/~whitetho/wiggily.htm