Emma Lazarus Rediscovered

by Eve Merriam

Book Overview

A biography of Emma Lazarus, 1849-1887, whose poem "The New Colossus" is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty. This work shows her to be an impassioned thinker in touch with Jewish leaders in New York City, & with world-class writers & philosophers.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0930395298
• ISBN13: 9780930395292
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Holmes & Meier Publishers
• Length: 164 Pages
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

In Search of Emma Lazarus

Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) achieved lasting fame with her sonnet, "The New Colossus" written in 1883 as part of a fund-raising effort for the pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. In 1903, Lazarus's sonnet was inscribed on the Statue. It has become an icon in its own right and a symbol of the visions and ideals of the United States. Lazarus's writings other than "The New Colossus" have been relegated to undeserved obscurity. Eve Merriam's book, "Emma Lazarus Rediscovered" initially was published in 1956 under the title "Emma Lazarus: Woman with a Torch" and republished in 1999 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Emma Lazarus's birth. The new edition includes an introduction and conclusion by Morris Schappes, a noted Lazarus scholar, and sells for a bargain price. It is good to have this book available and accessible to encourage an exploration of the works of Emma Lazarus. Lazarus's life remains obscure and shrouded in legend. The definitive account of her life and achievement remains to be written. Lazarus was born into a wealthy and assmimilated family of American Jews whose ancestors had settled in the United States before the Revolutionary War. She received the best private education available and early showed an interest in poetry which her father encouraged. Her work was published while Lazarus was still in her teens. She met Emerson who also encouraged her and became something of a mentor. She never married. Contrary to the picture some have of Emma Lazarus as a recluse, she was highly social with many influential friends in the upper reaches of American society and government. She did show, however, great reluctance to speak or appear in public. Much of the enigman of Emma Lazarus concerns her attitude towards Judaism. She published some poems and essays on Jewish themes from an early age, but in the early 1880s. with the advent of the Pogroms in Russia, her Jewish writing intensified. She published a volume of poetry, "Songs of a Semite" which, as compared to her earlier somewhat conventional work, shows a writer with her own voice. She wrote lengthy essays on Jewish themes in many of the leading periodicals of the day attacking anti-Semitism and the Pogroms and praising Judaism for bringing ethical monotheism, and a love for truth, knowledge and justice to the world. Towards the end of her life, she studied Hebrew, but she never became a practicing Jew. Eve Merriam's study heavily emphasizes the Jewish aspect of Emma Lazarus and argues strongly for Lazarus's commitment to Judaism. Her biography is largely drawn from Lazarus's published works - her poems and essays -- and she sees these works as integral to understanding Lazarus. A great virtue of Merriam's study is the extensive quotations it gives from Lazarus's writings which for most readers will be unfamiliar and inaccessible. But her study is weak on documentation and pays too little attention to the record Lazarus's life separate from her published works. Follo