Emma Lazarus by Esther Schor, Hardcover or Paperback

Drawing upon a cache of personal letters undiscovered until the 1980, Esther Schor brings this vital woman to life in all her complexity.

by Esther Schor


368 pages

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 entrée into New Yorks elite literary circles. Although she once referred to her family as “outlaw” Jews, she felt a deep attachment to Jewish history and peoplehood. Her compassion for the downtrodden Jews of Eastern Europe–refugees whose lives had little in common with her own–helped redefine the meaning of America itself. In this groundbreaking biography, Schor argues persuasively for Lazaruss place in history as a poet, an activist, and a prophet of the world we all inhabit today–a world that she helped to invent.