Gertrude Chandler Warner

Gertrude Chandler Warner was an American author, mainly of children's stories. She was most famous for writing the original book of The Boxcar Children and for the next eighteen books in the series.

Warner was born on April 16, 1890, in Putnam, Connecticut, to Edgar Morris Warner and Jane Elizabeth (Carpenter) Warner. Her family included an older sister, Frances, and a younger brother, John. Her middle name of Chandler came from her mother's ancestors, the Chandlers, who had settled in nearby Woodstock, CT in 1686. Her father Edgar Warner had graduated from Harvard Law School in 1872 and practiced law in Putnam, CT. The Warners’ house on Main Street was located across from the railroad station.

From the age of five, Warner dreamed of being an author, and began writing in ten-cent blank books as soon as she was able to hold a pencil. Her first book was an imitation of Florence Kate Upton's Golliwog stories and was titled Golliwog at the Zoo. It "consisted of verses illustrated with watercolors of the two Dutch clocks and the Golliwag." Warner presented this book to her grandfather, and every Christmas afterwards, she would give him a hand-made book as a present.

While growing up, Warner loved to read, and her favorite book was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Being in a musical family, she was predisposed to play an instrument; in her case, she chose the cello, and her father bought her a cello kit at a young age. However, because of her frequent illnesses, Warner never finished high school. After leaving in her sophomore year, she learned from a tutor and finished her secondary education. In 1918, while she was teaching Sunday School, Warner was called to teach first grade, mainly because male teachers were being called to serve in World War I. Warner continued teaching as a grade school teacher in Putnam, CT from 1918–1950. Also during this time, she returned to school for education courses at Yale University summer school.

Warner was a lover of nature. While growing up, she had butterfly and moth collections, pressed wildflowers, learned of all the birds in her area, and kept a garden. She used these interests in teaching her grade school students, and also used nature themes in her books. For instance, in the second book of The Boxcar Children (Surprise Island), the Alden children make a nature museum from the flowers, shells and seaweed they have collected and the shapes of birds they have observed. One of her students recalled the wildflower and stone-gathering contests that Warner sponsored when she was a teacher.

As well as her books in The Boxcar Children series, Warner wrote many other books for children, including The World in a Barn (1927), Windows into Alaska (1928), The World on a Farm (1931) and Peter Piper, Missionary Parakeet (1967). For adults she wrote Life's Minor Collisions and Pleasures and Palaces with her essayist sister Frances Warner.

Warner never married. She lived in her parents’ home for almost forty years, then moved to her grandmother's house. In 1962 she moved to a brown-shingled house, and lived there with her companion, a retired nurse. In her later life, before she died at age 89, Warner became a volunteer for the American Red Cross, the Connecticut Cancer Society and other charitable organizations. She is buried in Grove Street Cemetery, Putnam, Connecticut.