Susanna Anthony was a prolific letter-writer and diarist, and a prominent Congregationalist within her community. She was born on October 25, 1726 in Newport, Rhode Island to Isaac and Mary Chamberlin Anthony.

Susanna experienced a religious epiphany at the height of the Great Awakening, after reading a book released in 1741 by Samuel Corbin, Advice to Sinners under Conviction to Prevent Their Miscarrying in Conversion. The book had belonged to her late sister, whose unexpected death had depressed Susanna, and led her to develop an eating disorder. Susanna's Quaker parents were supportive of their daughter's decision to convert. She was baptized into the Congregationalist Church on October 24, 1741 at the age of fifteen.

Susanna devoted the rest of her life to religion. She remained in her parents' home, and earned money through needlework. She left Newport only when her fragile health required it, and during the American Revolution, when she worked as a teacher.

Susanna died after suffering a bout of pneumonia on June 23, 1791. Her writings were edited by Samuel Hopkins, a revivalist minister, in The Life and Character of Miss Susanna Anthony (1796) and Familiar Letters (1807).

Source: Dictionary of Literary Biography, 200, Carla Mulford, ed., Angela Vietto and Amy E. Winans, assoc. eds; Lina Mainiero, ed., American Women Writers