Stephen Warren Meader was the author of over forty adventure, mystery, war, sports, and occupational stories for boys. His optimistic stories generally tended to either concern young men developing independent businesses in the face of adversity, or else young men caught up in adventures during different periods in American history. Meader graduated from Haverford college in Philadelphia in 1913, and initially worked in Newark, New Jersey as a cruelty officer with the Essex County Children's Aid Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and by 1915 was working for the Big Brother Movement. After working for a Chicago publishing house in 1916, he took a position with the Circulation Department of the Curtis Publishing Company in Philadelphia, eventually reaching the position of Editor of the Sales Division publications. His first novel, The Black Buccaneer (1920), was the first juvenile publication of the newly founded Harcourt, Brace and Howe.