Lazarus, Emma, 1849–87, American poet and essayist, b. New York City. Her early verse includes Admetus and Other Poems (1871) and The Spagnoletto (1876), a poetic drama. Enraged by the Russian pogroms of the 1880s, she became an impassioned spokeswoman for Judaism, writing many essays and the book of poems, Songs of a Semite (1882), which contains her best work. Her sonnet about the Statue of Liberty, "The New Colossus," was engraved on the statue's pedestal. Her other work includes translations of Heine.

Bibliography

See biographies by C. Angoff (1979) and E. Schor (2006).

Lazarus, Emma

(born July 22, 1849, New York, N.Y., U.S.—died Nov. 19, 1887, New York) U.S. writer. She was born into a cultured Jewish family and learned languages and the classics at an early age. Her first book (1867) caught the attention of Ralph Waldo Emerson, with whom she corresponded thereafter. She wrote a prose romance and translated Heinrich Heine's poems and ballads. She took up the defense of persecuted Jews c. 1881 and began working for the relief of new immigrants to the U.S. The famous closing lines to her poem “The New Colossus” (1883) were inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty (see Statue of Liberty National Monument), dedicated in 1886.

Lazarus, Emma (1849–87) poet, writer; born in New York City. Educated privately, she lived in New York City. She translated the poetry of Heinrich Heine (1881), wrote a prose romance, and composed poetry including Songs of a Semite (1882), an impassioned indictment of Jewish persecution during the Russian pogroms of 1879–83. She remains best known for her sonnet, "The New Colossus" (1883), which is inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.