Gertrude Chandler Warner was born in Putnam, Connecticut, on April 16, 1890. From the age of five, she dreamed of becoming an author. With encouragement from her mother, who bought her a supply of notebooks, she carefully wrote down her stories and ofter presented them to her grandfather at Christmas time. As a child, she had spent hours watching the trains go by near her family's home. On one occasion, she peeked inside a boxcar and noted the table, cracked cups, and coffee boiling on a small stove. This image stayed with her and was the inspiration for the Boxcar Children stories that she is best known for.
While ill health prevented her from finishing school in the usual manner, she made good use of her tutor to the point that she was offered a teaching position. She went on to teach in the same school room for 32 years. Upon retiring she focused on writing full time.
As a teacher she had seen the difficulties of encouraging children to want to read. Many of her student spoke languages other than English at home, and this made it more challenging to engage them in their English textbooks. Ms. Warner's stories went through many revisions. She was determined to choose words that were both easy to understand and entertaining enough so that children would want to keep reading. She was so successful in this endeavor that after her death in 1979 her publisher, Albert Whitman & Company, continued to receive mail from children across the country asking for more adventures.
In 2004, the town of Putnam honored this beloved teacher and author with The Gertrude Chandler Warner Boxcar Children Museum fitting located in a brightly painted boxcar at the location of the former downtown railroad station.
