John E. Warriner

John E. Warriner (January 24, 1907 – 1987) was an American educator and author, best known for his Warriner's English Grammar and Composition. His textbooks, published in many editions over the course of decades in the twentieth century, were considered "one of the best selling series in textbook publishing history." More than 30 million copies of his books have been sold.

Education Warriner was born in Saginaw, Michigan. He studied at Central State Teachers College in Michigan from 1924 to 1926, was awarded the BA from the University of Michigan in 1930 (where he was class president), and received his MA from Harvard in 1931.

Career As an educator Warriner's first job was to be principal of a high school in Shepherd, Michigan from 1929 to 1931. He later taught at the Montclair State Teachers College in New Jersey from 1931 to 1937. He coached the tennis team there and served as an advisor to the literary club. Warriner moved on to become Head of the English Department at Garden City High School on Long Island in 1937. and finally, Composition: Models and Exercises. A 7th volume to Warriner's English Grammar and Composition was added in 1959.

His success in publishing allowed him to retire from teaching school in 1962, at the age of 55; he continued to edit textbooks, working at his publisher's offices in New York. Near the end of his life Warriner lived in both Amagansett, Long Island and on St. Croix, Virgin Islands. He was 80 years old when he died of cancer on July 29, 1987, in St. Croix.

One reviewer described Warriner's approach as follows: "The approach to grammar is formal, that is by definition and rule. Levels of usage given are standard, colloquial, and illiterate, and recognition is given to the differences between spoken and written English." Warriner himself once wrote: "Properly used, a textbook is an indispensable aid to the teacher who needs it for the abundance of teaching materials it contains and an important asset to the student who knows how to use it for reference."

Legacy "Warriner is the name both of a person and an institution," wrote one critic more than a decade after Warriner had died. Millions of students studied composition using his textbooks.

Said another, also after his death, "Arguably, John Warriner's textbooks have influenced writing instruction more than any other series at either the secondary or college level".

Warriner was called "the world's foremost authority on sentence diagramming" by the Detroit Free Press.

Central Michigan University awards a John E. Warriner Scholarship in his honor.

Publications His Handbook of English (first volume 1948) was a solo-author work, while most of the textbooks were co-edited. [Warriner's] English Grammar and Composition: Several different volumes called "Courses" Holt Elements of Language Holt Traditions: Warriner's Handbook: Several different volumes called "Courses" Holt Literature and Language Arts: Several different volumes called "Courses" Short Stories: Characters in Conflict Co-author with Edward Harlan Webster, Good English Through Practice, 3 vols. DOI: 10.1086/457472