Not Hoovervilles, But Hooch: Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Boxcar Children and The Roaring Twenties

Abstract

This essay provides much-needed critical attention and historical context to the long-neglected 1924 edition of Gertrude Chandler Warner’s The Box-Car Children. Commonly overshadowed by its more recent and more popular 1942 version—known as The Boxcar Children—this earlier edition calls attention to the original cultural context of Warner’s classic text. Initially written in and for a different era, The Box-Car Children invites a reconsideration of the book’s aim, intent, and original audience. While the narrative is now routinely viewed through the lens of the Great Depression, it was actually a product of the Jazz Age. This alternative historical backdrop alters the socio-political issues that were bearing upon The Box-Car Children while it was being written and, as a consequence, with which it was originally engaging. An awareness of the role that these topics play in the conception and construction of Warner’s classic American story changes the way we view, discuss, and teach the text.