Emma Lazarus, American Poet #1

Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 - November 19, 1887) was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations. The daughter of a wealthy Jewish... more

by Science Source

Title

Emma Lazarus, American Poet #1

Artist

Science Source

Medium

Photograph

Description

Emma Lazarus (July 22, 1849 - November 19, 1887) was an American author of poetry, prose, and translations. The daughter of a wealthy Jewish merchant, she was privately educated by tutors from an early age, studied American and British literature, as well as several languages, including German, French, and Italian. A collection of her Poems and Translations, verses written between the ages of 14 and 17, appeared in 1867. It included translations from Friedrich Schiller, Heinrich Heine, Alexandre Dumas, and Victor Hugo. During the next decade, in which Phantasies and Epochs were written, her poems appeared chiefly in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine and Scribner's Monthly. By this time, her work had won recognition abroad. In addition to writing her own poems, she edited many adaptations of German poems, notably those of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. She also wrote a novel and two plays. Lines from her sonnet The New Colossus appear on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty which was placed in 1903. The sonnet was written in 1883 and donated to an auction to raise funds to build the pedestal. In 1887, Lazarus returned to NYC seriously ill after her second trip to Europe, and died, most likely from Hodgkin's lymphoma, at the age of 38.

Uploaded

April 22nd, 2019