author
Emma Lazarus
1849–1887
Best known for writing “The New Colossus,” the sonnet that helped give the Statue of Liberty its welcoming voice, this New York poet also wrote essays, translations, and passionate work on behalf of Jewish refugees. Her life was brief, but her words became part of America’s cultural memory.
3 Audiobooks
The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 1
by Emma Lazarus
The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 2 Jewish poems: Translations
by Emma Lazarus
Alide: an episode of Goethe's life.
by Emma Lazarus
About the author
Born in New York City in 1849, Emma Lazarus grew up in a wealthy Sephardic Jewish family and was educated privately. She published poetry while still young and became known not only for her own verse but also for translations from German and other European writers.
She is most widely remembered for “The New Colossus,” written in 1883 for a fund-raising effort for the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. Its lines later became inseparable from the statue itself, helping shape the way generations of readers connected the monument with immigration, refuge, and hope.
Lazarus also wrote essays and spoke out for Jewish causes, especially after waves of persecution drove refugees from Russia to the United States. She died in 1887 at just 38, but her writing and public voice left a lasting mark on American literature and civic ideals.