Susan Warner
Encyclopedia
Susan Bogert Warner was an American evangelical writer of religious fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...

, children's fiction, and theological works.

Biography

Born in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, she wrote, under the name of "Elizabeth Wetherell", thirty novels, many of which went into multiple editions. However, her first novel,
The Wide, Wide World
The Wide, Wide World
The Wide, Wide World is an 1850 novel by Susan Warner, published under the pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell. It is often acclaimed as America's first bestseller.-Plot:...

(1850), was the most popular. It was translated into several other languages, including French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, and Dutch. Other than Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War", according to Will Kaufman....

, it was perhaps the most widely circulated story of American authorship. Other works include Queechy (1852), The Law and the Testimony, (1853), The Hills of the Shatemuc, (1856), The Old Helmet (1863), and Melbourne House (1864). In the nineteenth century, critics admired the depictions of rural American life in her early novels. American reviewers also praised Warner's Christian and moral teachings, while London reviewers tended not to favor her didacticism. Early twentieth-century critics classified Warner's work as "sentimental" and thus lacking in literary value. In the later twentieth century, feminist critics rediscovered The Wide, Wide World, discussing it as a quintessential domestic novel and focusing on analyzing its portrayal of gender dynamics.

Some of her works were written jointly with her younger sister Anna Bartlett Warner
Anna Bartlett Warner
Anna Bartlett Warner was an American writer, the author of several books, and of poems set to music as hymns and religious songs for children...

, who sometimes wrote under the pseudonym "Amy Lothrop". The Warner sisters also wrote famous children's Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 songs. Susan wrote "Jesus Bids Us Shine
Jesus Bids us Shine
"Jesus Bids Us Shine" is a children's hymn with words by Susan Bogert Warner and music by Edwin Othello Excell . It was first published in the children's magazine The Little Corporal in 1868....

" while Anna was author of the first verse of the well-known children's song "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know", which she wrote at Susan's request.

Both sisters became devout Christians in the late 1830s. After their conversion, they became confirmed members of the Mercer Street Presbyterian church, although in later life, Warner became drawn into Methodist circles. The sisters also held Bible studies for the West Point cadets. When they were on military duty, the cadets would sing "Jesus loves me." The popularity of the song was so great that upon Warner's death, she was buried in the West Point Cemetery.

Warner could trace her lineage back to the Puritan Pilgrims on both sides. Her father was Henry Warner, a New York City lawyer originally from New England, and her mother was Anna Bartlett, from a wealthy, fashionable family in New York's Hudson Square. When Warner was a young child, her mother died, and her father's sister Fanny came to live with the Warners. Although Henry Warner had been a successful lawyer, he lost most of his fortune in the Panic of 1837
Panic of 1837
The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis or market correction in the United States built on a speculative fever. The end of the Second Bank of the United States had produced a period of runaway inflation, but on May 10, 1837 in New York City, every bank began to accept payment only in specie ,...

 and in subsequent lawsuits and poor investments. The family had to leave their mansion at St. Mark's Place in New York and move to an old Revolutionary War-era farmhouse on Constitution Island
Constitution Island
Constitution Island is an island in the Hudson River, at West Point, New York. It is part of the grounds of the United States Army Garrison, West Point. United States Military Academy...

, near West Point, NY
West Point, New York
West Point is a federal military reservation established by President of the United States Thomas Jefferson in 1802. It is a census-designated place located in Town of Highlands in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 7,138 at the 2000 census...

. In 1849, seeing little change in their family's financial situation, Susan and Anna started writing to earn money.

Susan Warner died in Highland Falls, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and is buried in the West Point Cemetery
West Point Cemetery
West Point Cemetery is a historic cemetery on the grounds of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. It overlooks the Hudson River, and served as a burial ground for American Revolutionary War soldiers and early West Point inhabitants long before 1817 when it was officially...

.

List of works

  • The Wide, Wide World
    The Wide, Wide World
    The Wide, Wide World is an 1850 novel by Susan Warner, published under the pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell. It is often acclaimed as America's first bestseller.-Plot:...

    , 1850; Die weite, weite Welt, Leipzig: G. H. Friedlein 1853
  • Queechy, 1852
  • The Law and the Testimony, 1853
  • The Hills of Shatemuc, 1856
  • Say and Seal, 1860
  • Melbourne House, 1864
  • My Desire, 1879
  • The End of A Coil, 1880
  • Nobody, 1882

External links

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