Gertrude Chandler Warner books in order

Gertrude Chandler Warner (16 April 1890 to 1979) was an American schoolteacher and children's writer who created The Boxcar Children, first published by Rand McNally in 1924.

She was born in Putnam, Connecticut. Repeated illness kept her from finishing high school, and she completed her schooling with a tutor. In 1918, with many male teachers away serving in the First World War, she was asked to teach first grade in Putnam, and she stayed in the classroom there until 1950.

The idea for The Boxcar Children came to her while she was ill at home, and Rand McNally published the book, titled The Box-Car Children, in 1924. In 1942 she rewrote it in a shorter form using a vocabulary of about 600 words, and that version became the familiar text. She wrote 18 further stories in the series, starting with Surprise Island (1949) and including The Yellow House Mystery (1953) and Mystery Ranch (1958), for 19 books in all. Other authors have since added roughly 150 titles, and Albert Whitman and Company publishes the series today. Her other books include The World in a Barn (1927) and Peter Piper, Missionary Parakeet (1967).

For collectors

The 1924 Rand McNally edition, titled The Box-Car Children, preserves a text that differs noticeably from the shorter 1942 version: the children's surname is Cordyce rather than Alden, Henry is 13 rather than 14, Benny is 5 rather than 6, and their dog Watch is an Airedale. The 19 books she wrote herself are the core of a Warner collection.