Susan Warner

Susan Warner (1819–1885) was an American novelist who wrote as Elizabeth Wetherell. Born in New York City to a prosperous lawyer, she lost her comfortable life when her father's fortune collapsed in 1837 and the family withdrew to Constitution Island opposite West Point, where she lived for the rest of her days. Her first novel, The Wide, Wide World, published in 1850, was one of the great popular successes of the century; Queechy and the Daisy books followed, and the hymn Jesus Loves Me began as verses in Say and Seal. She wrote several books with her sister Anna and taught Bible classes to West Point cadets.