Warner, Susan Bogert and Anna Bartlett Warner

Warner, Susan Bogert (1819–1885). Writer who was the first American to sell over a million copies of a book . Name variations: (pseudonym) Elizabeth Wetherell. Born Susan Bogert Warner on July 11, 1819, in New York City; died on March 17, 1885, in Highland Falls, New York; daughter of Henry Whiting Warner and Anna (Bartlett) Warner; sister of Anna Bartlett Warner (1827–1915); educated privately.

Selected writings:

The Wide, Wide World (1852); Queechy (1852); American Female Patriotism: A Prize Essay (1852); The Law and the Testimony (1853); The Hills of Shatemuc (1856); The Old Helmet (1863); Melbourne House (1864); Walks from Eden (1865); The House of Israel (1866); Daisy (1869); Daisy in the Field (1869); The Broken Walls of Jerusalem and the Rebuilding of Them (1870); "What She Could" (1870); The House in Town (1870); Opportunities (1871); Lessons on the Standard Bearers of the Old Testament (1872); Trading (1872); The Little Camp on Eagle Hill (1873); Sceptres and Crowns (1874); Willow Brook (1874); Bread and Oranges (1875); The Flag of Truce (1875); The Rapids of Niagara (1876); Pine Needles (1877); Diana (1877); The Kingdom of Judah (1878); My Desire (1879); The End of a Coil (1880); The Letter of Credit (1881); Nobody (1882); Stephen, M.D. (1883); A Red Wallflower (1884); Daisy Plains (1885).

Warner, Anna Bartlett (1827–1915). American author who was the first to publish a do-it-yourself gardening book . Name variations: (pseudonym) Amy Lothrop. Born Anna Bartlett Warner on August 31, 1827, in New York City; died on January 15, 1915, in Highland Falls, New York; daughter of Henry Whiting Warner and Anna (Bartlett) Warner; sister of Susan Bogert Warner (1819–1885); educated privately.

Selected writings:

Carl Krinken: His Christmas Stocking (1853); Say and Seal (1860); Dollars and Cents (1852); Gardening by Myself (1872); Wych Hazel (1876); The Gold of Chickaree (1876); Susan Warner (1909).

Susan Bogert Warner and Anna Bartlett Warner were born eight years apart in New York City to prosperous lawyer Henry Whiting Warner and Anna Bartlett Warner. Their mother died when the girls were still young, and they were raised by an aunt. Susan, the only one of the Warners' first four children to survive, was of a nervous temperament and remarkably different from her more boisterous younger sister. Both girls received a private education in music and Italian from tutors while their father oversaw their studies in history, literature, and the classics. In 1836, Henry Warner purchased Constitution Island on the Hudson River near West Point, and moved his family to this remote location. He had envisioned the former Revolutionary outpost—complete with the ruins of an old fort—as a summer retreat, but the economic panic of 1837 forced the family to give up their expensive quarters in the city and live on the island full-time. The family's financial straits had a profound impact on the Warner girls. Now responsible for their own cooking, cleaning, and gardening, they also assumed such tasks as chopping firewood and rowing to the mainland for supplies and mail. Susan felt the loss of the family's position in society more keenly than did Anna, since she had been on the cusp of her society debut, but the hardship drew the sisters together despite their differing temperaments.

Economic necessity also propelled the sisters into writing careers. According to Ruth K. MacDonald , all of the novels by the Warner sisters "deal with the genteel society the two had known during their family's prosperous period and with the evangelical Protestantism which they both professed." Writing under the pseudonym Elizabeth Wetherell, Susan Warner published her first book, The Wide, Wide World (1852), which featured a character not unlike a female Huck Finn. Numerous publishers refused her manuscript before it was accepted and published by Putnam. The novel, like her other works, has religious overtones and a rural setting. Phenomenally popular, in part because of favorable theological reviews, it outsold Charles Dickens' David Copperfield in England, making Susan the first American to sell more than a million copies of a book, and was read into the 20th century. Shedding her pen name, she followed this success with two more novels, Queechy (1852) and The Law and the Testimony (1853), which both experienced moderate success. In 1856, Susan Warner published The Hills of the Shatemuc, which sold 10,000 copies on the day of its release. A prolific writer, she published at least one book each year from 1856 until her death in 1885.

Anna Warner's first book, Dollars and Cents, was also published in 1852. A mildly humorous story about a once-prosperous family who experienced financial hardship and had to move to the country, it was a moderate parallel to her own family's circumstances. She also developed a popular educational card game called "Robinson Crusoe's Farm," which was sold for many years through the George P. Putnam store. Anna Warner went on to publish some 25 books, including children's fiction, religious subjects, and gardening. She took great pleasure in gardening and in 1872 published Gardening by Myself, which deals with the planning, preparation and attention to her own garden. Extremely popular, this book was reprinted 50 years after its first publication. Anna's religious works included verse and the words to several hymns, her best-known efforts being "Jesus Loves Me, This I Know," and "Jesus Bids Us Shine." Although Susan was the more popular and successful of the two authors, Anna's writing displays greater versatility and a lighter touch. Her last book, published in 1909, was a biography of Susan.

Economic necessity forced Susan to sell her rights to The Wide, Wide World, and due to a lack of copyright protection, she did not receive payment when it was published abroad. Although the sisters never became rich from their writings, they were able to support themselves. Religion was a very important part of their lives and, in addition to their writing, they conducted Bible classes for West Point cadets, which included serious reading and discussion sessions followed by tea and gingerbread. In the winter, the classes were held at the academy; during warmer months, they were held on the island and provided time and opportunity for the cadets to explore the area.

Although Susan and Anna were not particularly close as children, given the difference in their ages, their isolated existence on Constitution Island and their interests in reading and writing eventually drew them together. In addition to their individual efforts, the sisters collaborated on several children's books. According to MacDonald, critical interest in their work has not revealed a lasting influence upon children's literature; however, as successful authors in the 19th century, they inspired the domestic fiction of other women writers.

Susan Warner died in Highland Falls, New York, in 1885. Anna remained on the island for the next 30 years. During this time, she was offered considerable sums of money for Constitution Island but steadfastly refused to sell. The sisters had wanted the island to become part of West Point, but bills to acquire it repeatedly failed to pass Congress. It was eventually purchased by Margaret Olivia Sage , who presented it to the government in 1908 in her name and that of Anna Warner. Anna died in 1915 and is buried with her sister in the government cemetery at West Point, where their graves overlook Constitution Island.

sources:

Edgerly, Lois Stiles, ed. Give Her This Day. Gardiner, ME: Tilbury House, 1990.

James, Edward T., ed. Notable American Women, 1607–1950. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1971.

MacDonald, Ruth K. "Susan Bogert Warner," in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 42: American Writers for Children Before 1900. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 1985, pp. 362–367.

Read, Phyllis J., and Bernard L. Witlieb. The Book of Women's Firsts. NY: Random House, 1992.

Stern, Madeline B., and Leona Rostenberg. "Susan Bogert Warner," in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 3: Antebellum Writers in New York and the South. Detroit, MI: Gale Group, 1979, pp. 348–349.

Weatherford, Doris. American Women's History. NY: Prentice Hall, 1994.

Judith C. Reveal , freelance writer, Greensboro, Maryland