Maria Susanna Cummins (April 9, 1827 – October 1, 1866) was an American novelist.

Maria Susanna Cummins was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on April 9, 1827.

She was the daughter of David Cummins and Maria F. Kittredge, and was the eldest of four children.

The Cummins family resided in the neighborhood of Dorchester in Boston, Massachusetts.

She studied at Mrs. Charles Sedgwick's Young Ladies School in Lenox, Massachusetts.