Susan Warner
Susan Warner, also known by her pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell, was a notable American author best remembered for her influential novel, "The Wide, Wide World," published in 1850. This two-volume work became a bestseller, particularly popular among young female readers, and is regarded as a pivotal piece in American literature. Warner was born into a well-to-do New York family, but her life took a turn after the Panic of 1837 forced her family to relocate to a more modest setting. This change prompted her to pursue writing as a means to support her family financially.
Warner's literature often features worthy adolescent heroines and reflects a strong sense of religious fundamentalism, set against the backdrop of rural New England. Despite the success of "The Wide, Wide World," much of her later work did not achieve the same acclaim. She faced financial difficulties due to her relinquishing of royalties and the complexities of copyright laws, which prevented her writings from providing substantial support to her family. Susan Warner passed away in 1885 at the age of sixty-five, leaving behind a legacy that includes a lasting impact on American literature, particularly in the genre of domestic novels.
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Susan Warner
- Born: July 11, 1819
- Birthplace: New York, New York
- Died: March 17, 1885
- Place of death: Highland Falls, New York
Biography
Much of Susan Warner’s reputation as a writer rests upon the extremely popular The Wide, Wide World, a two-volume novel published in 1850. Although she wrote many other novels in a career spanning more than thirty years, her first novel, written under the pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell, set the tone for the works that followed. Worthy adolescent heroines, the local flavor of rural New England settings, and a fervid brand of religious fundamentalism permeated many of her works.
Warner and her sister Anna Bartlett were born into a wealthy, well-connected, and well-established family in New York City. Her father, Henry Whiting Warner, was a prosperous attorney with extensive real-estate investments. The family was able to trace its history in America back to the Warners who settled in Massachusetts in 1637. Her mother Anna (Bartlett) Warner, died in 1828, when Susan was only nine. Warner and her sister grew up in prosperity, being raised by their father and an aunt after their mother’s death. The fortunes of the family soon changed, however, when Henry Whiting Warner lost his fortune in the Panic of 1837.
Forced to move with her family from New York to an isolated and unimproved farm on Constitution Island opposite West Point, Warner began to entertain the idea of turning to writing to contribute to the family’s finances. Her first attempt, in the late 1840’s, was the manuscript for The Wide, Wide World. The manuscript originally met with little success, with publishers calling it tedious, uneventful, and overly didactic. G. P. Putnam finally accepted the book for publication after his mother gave it an enthusiastic review. She recognized the appeal of the book that would go on to become a best seller to rival Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly (1852). Warner’s readers responded to the story of the young heroine’s success, her developing goodness and morality, and her religious sensibility. The book was especially popular with young female readers. The novel was published in more than eight hundred editions well into the twentieth century and sold more than half a million copies in the United States alone. The novel was also published to great popularity in England.
Although Warner continued to publish quaint and rather dated domestic novels in the same vein until her death in 1885, none matched the popularity of her first book. The only other of her novels to achieve some fame was her second book, Queechy. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Warner had signed away the royalties to her books and was a victim of the vagaries of copyright laws, her writing never achieved its original purpose of contributing in a substantial way to the finances of her family. Warner died in Highland Falls, New York, at the age of sixty-five.