By Andrew Amelinckx
Appeared in The Register-Star, Decemeber 2, 2007
On a horseshoe shaped road in Canaan an old white house that found its way into one of the first best–selling novels in American history still stands. The house was named for the original owner, Jason Warner, grandfather of Susan Warner, the woman who wrote the novel “The Wide, Wide World” in 1850, which went through 14 reprintings in two years and sold more than half a million copies during her lifetime.
Warner and her sister Anna, who was also a writer, spent several summers in Canaan in the early 1800s and drew upon their memories in their works, according to a history of the Warner family by the Canaan Historical Society.
Both women used pen names during their writing careers. Susan Warner wrote under the name Elizabeth Wetherell, while Anna Warner’s pen name was Amy Lothrop. Both women were born in New York City, but their roots were in Canaan. In February 1764 the women’s ancestors moved from South Canaan, Conn., and settled in what was known then as the King’s District and built a tavern and house.
William Warner, the head of the family, and seven of his 13 children enlisted to fight against the British during America’s fight for independence, and their tavern was the meeting place where the delegates for the Provincial Congress were chosen and wherethey declared their independence against the Crown on June 24, 1776, according to the Canaan Historical Society.
The girls’ grandfather, Jason Warner, fought at the Battle of Saratoga and after the war married his colonel's daughter—Abigail Whiting . One of their sons, Henry Warner, graduated from Union College in Schenectady in 1809 and then moved to New York City and established a law practice. He was the father of Susan and Anna Warner, who were born in 1819 and 1827 respectively.
The publication of “The Wide, Wide World” when Susan Warner was 31, launched her writing career and in 1852 another novel that drew on her time in Canaan appeared. “Queechy” was almost as successful as her first novel. Susan Warner also collaborated with her sister and co-authored 18 books. Anna Warner’s output was mainly children’s books and religious works. Her first publication was “Robinson Crusoe’s Farmyard” — a natural history game for children.
Between the two sisters they had a total of 106 publications. According to the Literature Networks Forum Web site, the women’s most famous collaboration was “Say and Seal,” the book in which the Hymn “Jesus Loves Me,” written by Anna Warner, first appeared.
Both women were educated by private tutors, studied literature, music, French and Italian and were part of fashionable New York society, but in 1837, due to their father’s financial problems, the family moved to Constitution Island near West Point, which would be the family’s home until 1915 when Anna Warner died.
Besides writing, the sisters taught Bible classes to West Point cadets for forty years.
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