author

George Orrin Draper

b. 1884

Best remembered for a lively early 20th-century guide to group play, this compiler gathered games for schools, churches, and homes with an eye toward fun and community. His work still feels practical and welcoming more than a century later.

1 Audiobook

School, Church, and Home Games

School, Church, and Home Games

by George Orrin Draper

About the author

George Orrin Draper was an American compiler of recreational games, born in 1884. Public catalog records for his best-known book, School, Church, and Home Games, credit him as the compiler and show it was published in New York by Association Press in 1921.

That book brought together activities for classrooms, community groups, and family settings, reflecting a simple idea that play helps people connect. Modern public-domain listings, including Project Gutenberg, identify him as George Orrin Draper (1884–1954), which matches memorial records that place his burial in New London, New Hampshire.

Very little biographical detail appears to be widely documented online, but his surviving work has had a long afterlife through library collections and digital editions. He is remembered less as a literary celebrity than as a practical organizer of games that encouraged shared activity, sociability, and everyday enjoyment.