A. Whitman
Albert Whitman & Company is an independent Chicago-area children's publisher, founded in 1919, that published the Boxcar Children mysteries from 1942 to 2023.
- Editions tracked
- 66
- First editions
- 65
- Books
- 66
- Years
- 1948 to 2004
About A. Whitman
Albert Whitman & Company (often abbreviated A. Whitman) is an independent American children's publisher founded in 1919 in the Chicago area, best known for issuing Gertrude Chandler Warner's Boxcar Children mysteries for eight decades.
Its founder, Albert Whitman, had earlier set up another company that later merged into Western Publishing, the parent of Golden Books. Collectors should not confuse the Chicago firm with Whitman Publishing, a Western subsidiary in Racine, Wisconsin, that issued Trixie Belden and Big Little Books. Albert Whitman & Company has been independently owned since 1919 and had had only four owners by 2011. In 2014 it was based in Park Ridge, Illinois, under president John Quattrocchi, and by 2023 it was co-owned by Quattrocchi and Pat McPartland.
Warner's The Box-Car Children first appeared from Rand McNally in 1924; Albert Whitman reissued it in a shorter, revised form in 1942 and went on to publish the rest of Warner's 19 stories, followed by many more by other writers carrying the line "Created by Gertrude Chandler Warner". In May 2023 the company sold the series rights to Random House Children's Books. In 2011 it announced deluxe reissues of Maj Lindman's Flicka, Ricka, Dicka picture books, and it added young adult fiction in the early 2010s.
We have not yet written the guide to A. Whitman's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how A. Whitman marked its firsts? Tell us.
Published by A. Whitman
Frequently asked questions
How many A. Whitman books does MyVolumes track?
We track 66 editions published by A. Whitman, 65 of them first editions, across 66 books.
Where these facts come from
- Albert Whitman & Company (Q113473466), Wikidata (wikidata.org)
- Western Great Lakes: All in the Family, Publishers Weekly, 2014 (publishersweekly.com)
- Interview with Albert Whitman & Company, Cynthia Leitich Smith, 2011 (cynthialeitichsmith.com)
- Random House Acquires Boxcar Children Series, Publishers Weekly, 2023 (publishersweekly.com)
- The Boxcar Children, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- Whitman Publishing, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 17 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.