The Boxcar Children Mysteries Box Set
Page 78
THE GHOST TOWN MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE BLACK RAVEN
THE MYSTERY IN THE MALL
THE MYSTERY IN NEW YORK
THE GYMNASTICS MYSTERY
THE POISON FROG MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE EMPTY SAFE
THE HOME RUN MYSTERY
THE GREAT BICYCLE RACE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE WILD PONIES
THE MYSTERY IN THE COMPUTER
GAME
THE MYSTERY AT THE CROOKED
HOUSE
THE HOCKEY MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE MIDNIGHT DOG
THE MYSTERY OF THE SCREECH OWL
THE SUMMER CAMP MYSTERY
THE COPYCAT MYSTERY
THE HAUNTED CLOCK TOWER
MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE TIGER’S EYE
THE DISAPPEARING STAIRCASE
MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY ON BLIZZARD
MOUNTAIN
THE MYSTERY OF THE SPIDER’S CLUE
THE CANDY FACTORY MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE MUMMY’S
CURSE
THE MYSTERY OF THE STAR RUBY
THE STUFFED BEAR MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF ALLIGATOR SWAMP
THE MYSTERY AT SKELETON POINT
THE TATTLETALE MYSTERY
THE COMIC BOOK MYSTERY
THE GREAT SHARK MYSTERY
THE ICE CREAM MYSTERY
THE MIDNIGHT MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY IN THE FORTUNE
COOKIE
THE BLACK WIDOW SPIDER MYSTERY
THE RADIO MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE RUNAWAY
GHOST
THE FINDERS KEEPERS MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED
BOXCAR
THE CLUE IN THE CORN MAZE
THE GHOST OF THE CHATTERING
BONES
THE SWORD OF THE SILVER KNIGHT
THE GAME STORE MYSTERY
THE MYSTERY OF THE ORPHAN TRAIN
THE VANISHING PASSENGER
THE GIANT YO-YO MYSTERY
THE CREATURE IN OGOPOGO LAKE
THE ROCK ’N’ ROLL MYSTERY
THE SECRET OF THE MASK
THE SEATTLE PUZZLE
THE GHOST IN THE FIRST ROW
THE BOX THAT WATCH FOUND
A HORSE NAMED DRAGON
THE GREAT DETECTIVE RACE
THE GHOST AT THE DRIVE-IN MOVIE
THE MYSTERY OF THE TRAVELING
TOMATOES
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © 1967 by Albert Whitman & Company
ISBN: 978-1-4532-0803-8
This 2010 edition distributed by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
Illustrated Biography
Gertrude Chandler Warner (1890—1979) was an American author of children’s books, most notably the first nineteen titles of the Boxcar Children mystery series, as well as four books for adults.
Born on April 16, 1890, Warner was raised in Putnam, Connecticut, in a house built by her grandfather, John Carpenter, at 42 South Main Street, across the street from a railroad station. Her sister, Frances, was two years older than her, and her brother, John, was two years younger. Their parents, Edgar Warner and Jane Elizabeth Carpenter Warner, were extremely active within the Putnam community as a lawyer/judge and head of the town school committee, respectively. Although she was afflicted with severe sore throats and other childhood illnesses, Warner attended the Fifth District School House with her siblings. When she was halfway through her sophomore year of high school, her ailments got the better of her and she had to withdraw. Instead of formal schooling, she studied at home with a tutor and with her mother, although she never graduated.
Warner’s first job was for a Sunday school newspaper published in the nearby town of Danielson, which paid her a dollar for every five hundred words she wrote. Having written stories since she was nine years old, mostly for her family, she longed to write a book and have it published. Her dream came true in 1916 with the publication of The House of Delight, a children’s book about her childhood dollhouse and its residents, Mr. and Mrs. Delight. Shortly after, both Warner and her sister began publishing stories and essays in magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Ladies’ Home Journal, House Beautiful, and Harper’s.
In 1918, as the United States became involved in World War I, the resulting dearth of educators led Warner to begin what would become a thirty-two year career teaching first and third grade at the Israel Putnam School. At first, she assisted another teacher for a few hours each day, but when that teacher died of influenza during the pandemic of 1918—19, Warner took over. She had forty children in her morning class and another forty in the afternoon, and her salary was raised five times—from four hundred to one thousand dollars—during her first year of teaching. Meanwhile, she continued to write, composing a nature series for Little Folks magazine, and, in 1918, a Boston publisher collected her many articles about stars and constellations for a children’s astronomy book, Star Stories for Little Folks.
When Warner suffered a bout of bronchitis that kept her from teaching for several months, she began to write the story that would become The Boxcar Children. It was about the Alden children—four orphans who live in a boxcar—and it was inspired by the Putnam Railroad Station across the street from Warner’s childhood home. The Boxcar Children, published in 1942, would become the first installment of her beloved mystery series and establish her as a writer of children’s books. In 1949 she published the second Boxcar book, Surprise Island. The following year, when she turned sixty, Warner finally retired from teaching and devoted herself to writing full-time, publishing books for both children and adults. She wrote nineteen Boxcar books in all, including The Yellow House Mystery (1953), Mystery Ranch (1958), The Woodshed Mystery (1962), and Benny Uncovers a Mystery (1976), which would be her last.
Warner died in Putnam on August 30, 1979, when she was eighty-nine years old. But the Boxcar Children live on: To this day, authors contribute new stories to the series, which now totals over one hundred and twenty books.
A two-year-old Warner around 1892 with her sister, Frances, age four. Growing up, Warner earned money by killing flies around the house. Her parents paid her the handsome sum of ten cents for every hundred flies she killed.
Warner’s childhood home in Putnam, Connecticut. It had been built for her family by her grandfather, John Carpenter, and was kept heated in the winter by wood and lit at night by kerosene lamps.
The Putnam railroad, situated across the street from Warner’s childhood home. As a child, Warner would stare into the caboose of a parked train and think about how fun it would be to live in one.
The Warner family. From left: Edgar, Frances, John, Gertrude, and Jane.
Warner, in 1901 at age eleven, poses for a portrait. Just two years before, she had completed her first book, Golliwogg at the Zoo, which she illustrated with watercolors and gave as a gift to her grandfather.
Warner with her first-grade class in 1924. She taught first and third grade for thirty-two years at the Israel Putnam School in Putnam, Connecticut. The school building still stands today, though
it has been converted into apartments.
This photo, taken in 1933, shows Warner sitting at the piano while her sister, Frances, holds a violin. The Warner family often played music together growing up.
Warner in 1940, seen wearing a fur coat. She was very active in the Congregational Church of Putnam at this time, and in 1948 wrote a history of the church for its centennial celebration.
Warner writing in her home. She published nineteen Boxcar books in all, as well as numerous other books for both children and adults.
A photo of Warner taken shortly before her death in 1979. Even in retirement, Warner invited students from the Putnam School to visit her at home to enjoy some lemonade and talk about books.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
copyright © by Albert Whitman & Company
ISBN: 978-1-4532-1116-8
This 2010 edition distributed by Open Road Integrated Media
180 Varick Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com