Susan Warner (July 11, 1819 - March 17, 1885), was an American writer of religious fiction for young people. Born in New York City, she wrote, under the name of "Elizabeth Wetherell," a number of stories, of which The Wide, Wide World (1851) had an extraordinary popularity. It was translated into French, Italian, Russian, Swedish, and Spanish. Other than Uncle Tom's Cabin, it was perhaps the most widely circulated story of American authorship. Other books of hers were Queechy (1852), The Law and the Testimony, (1853), The Hills of the Shatemuc, (1856), The Old Helmet (1863), and Melbourne House (1864). Some of the books have no particular literary merit or truth to nature, and are rather sentimental and "gushy."
Some of her works were written jointly with her sister Anna Bartlett Warner, who also sometimes wrote under a pseudonym, "Amy Lothrop". For many years they lived on Constitution Island in the Hudson near West Point.
Both Susan and Anna Warner wrote famous children's Christian songs. Susan wrote Jesus Bids us Shine 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.
Their father was Henry Warner, a New York City Lawyer who lost most of his fortune in the Panic of 1837. It was after this that Susan and Anna started writing to earn money.
She died in Highland Falls, New York.
