Anna Bartlett Warner

Anna Bartlett Warner was an American novelist, poet, hymn writer, editor, and teacher. Most modern hymnological references give her birth as August 31, 1827, although some older authorities and recent researchers argue for 1824; the documentary record remains inconsistent. She was raised in New York with her older sister, novelist Susan Bogert Warner. After their father suffered severe financial losses following the Panic of 1837, the family made its home on Constitution Island in the Hudson River opposite West Point. Writing became both a vocation and a means of support.

Warner published religious fiction and children's literature under her own name and the pseudonym Amy Lothrop. She edited Hymns of the Church Militant in 1858 and issued Wayfaring Hymns, Original and Translated in 1869. Her best-known text first appeared within Say and Seal, the 1860 novel written with Susan. In the story, a Sunday-school teacher comforts the gravely ill child Johnny Fax with a newly introduced song. The novel supplies four stanzas but no refrain.

Anna and Susan also taught Bible classes to West Point cadets for decades, a ministry commemorated by the United States Military Academy and the Constitution Island Association. Anna remained on the island after Susan's death and was buried in the West Point Cemetery in 1915. Her literary output was extensive, but Jesus Loves Me became her most durable contribution to Christian song.