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Biography of author of "The New Colossus"
Jewish Encounters
Schocken
September 2006
On Sale: September 5, 2006
Featuring: Emma Lazarus
368 pages
ISBN: 0805242163
EAN: 9780805242164
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
Emma Lazarusβs most famous poem gave a voice to the Statue of Liberty, but her remarkable life has remained a mystery until now. She was a woman so far ahead of her time that we are still scrambling to catch up with herβa feminist, a Zionist, and an internationally famous Jewish American writer before thse categories even existed. Drawing upon a cache of personal letters undiscovered until the 1980, Esther Schor brings this vital woman to life in all her complexity. Born into a wealthy Sephardic family in 1849, Lazarus published her first volume of verse at seventeen and gained entrΓ©e into New Yorkβs elite literary circles. Although she once referred to her family as βoutlawβ Jews, she felt a deep attachment to Jewish history and peoplehood. Her compassion for the downtrodden Jews of Eastern Europeβrefugees whose lives had little in common with her ownβhelped redefine the meaning of America itself. In this groundbreaking biography, Schor argues persuasively for Lazarusβs place in history as a poet, an activist, and a prophet of the world we all inhabit todayβa world that she helped to invent.
 Media BuzzAll Things Considered - October 21, 2006
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