Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters [Paperback]

Dr. Bette Roth Young (Author), Francine Klagsbrun (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1997

The biography and selected letters of this literary great includes over 60 newly discovered letters written to many other literary giants of the time, including Robert Browning and William Morris.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Young has unearthed more than 100 letters by American poet Emma Lazarus that, tucked into this biographical study, shed new light on her activities and personality. Best remembered for her sonnet ``The New Colossus,'' engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, Lazarus (1849-1887) was an ardent spokesperson for eastern European Jews fleeing anti-Semitism in czarist Russia. She founded a society to help Jewish exiles resettle in Palestine and advocated a Jewish homeland in Palestine 13 years before Theodor Herzl coined the term Zionism. Nevertheless, the wealthy, genteel Sephardic poet and essayist--assimilated and never fully comfortable with her Judaism--based her concept of Jewish renewal on a return to an idealized biblical past. Previous biographers have portrayed a reclusive spinster who suddenly became pro-Semitic at the age of 33, but these intimate, gossipy letters reveal a vital woman who actively participated in cultural life, meeting in Europe with Henry James, Matthew Arnold, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. Freelance writer Young shows that Lazarus's reclamation of her Jewishness was an evolutionary process, as reflected in her earliest writings. Photos.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: The Jewish Publication Society (August 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827606184
• ISBN-13: 978-0827606180
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,571,769 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Emma Lazarus, August 30, 2001

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Emma Lazarus in Her World: Life and Letters (Paperback)

With the exception of her sonnet, The New Colossus", which is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, the work of Emma Lazarus is almost unknown today. In her short life, Lazarus produced an impressive body of poetry, translations, and plays. In particular she wrote poems on Jewish themes, on pogroms in Europe, and on an incipient Zionism. She is the first significant Jewish-American poet and is still, I believe, one of the most important.

Ms Roth-Young's book is divided into two sections, the first consisting of a biography of Emma Lazarus the second consisting of a selection of her letters discovered and published for the first time by the author. Roth-Young has a knowledge of and affection for her subject. Roth-Young attacks views of Ms Lazarus that had been advaced by earlier writers, creating what she describes as a "myth". The "myth" sees Emma Lazarus as a reclusive spinster who discovered her Jewish roots in the early 1880 and changed from a late-Victorian poet with traditional late romantic themes to an ardent poet of Judaism.

Because the work and life of Emma Lazarus are so little known, the critique of earlier writers appears overdone. A straightforward narrative might have been more effective. Roth-Young's portrait, and the letters, show, indeed a cosmopolitan, highly social Emma Lazarus who travelled twice to Europe in the final years of her life (1885-1887) and appeared more concerned with European culture and art than with recovering her Jewish past. It remains questionable, however, whether this is the whole story of a life or whether it is as inconsistent with earlier readings of Lazarus's life as Roth-Young believes it is.

Lazarus described herself as a recluse; she was sensitive about her unmarried state. A large and varied correspondence does not rebut this self-perception. The book points to ambivalences in Lazarus's attitute towards Judaism, and this is useful in understanding her work.

The book also could have used a fuller discussion of Emma azarus's poetry because, as Roth-Young is aware, it is virtually forgotten today. The forward to the book by Frances Klagsburn suggests that Emma Lazarus's poetry was largely conventional and derivative and that her Jewish poetry suffers from a certain lack of distance and personal involvement. There is not sufficient discussion of the poetry in the book to convince the reader that this is true. My own reading of this poetry is that it is a thoughtful and important predecessor of the liberal Judaism of our own day with much to teach us sbout the value of non-fundamentalist religion in a secular world.

This book is a good introduction to Emma Lazarus who, I think, deserves the status Ms Roth-Young thinks she already has as something of an American icon due to her association with the Statue of Liberty. I hope it will encourage the interested reader to search out the works of this too little known American poet.