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Book Review  by Ida Nasatir

World of Emma Lazarus by H.E. Jacob
February 10, 1950—Ida Nasatir book review—The World of Emma Lazarus  by H.E. Jacob—Southwestern Jewish Press, page 3 :  I think every school child knows about the poem which is to be found at the base of the Statue of Liberty, at the entrance of the great New York harbor. With warmth and fervor they will recite it.  Give me your tired, your poor,/ Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free./ The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./ Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,/ I lift up my lamp—beside the golden door. But few of these children, as well as few adults, know much about the shy, remarkable woman who was able to create this "Colossus," along with some of America's most stirring poetry. In The World of Emma Lazarus we are given, for the first time, a full length portrait of this woman. In writing this biography, the author has attempted to explain some of the obscurities that marked her life. He tells of her close friendship with ralph Waldo Emerson, the "revered sage of concord." When Emerson published his important anthology, Parnassus and did NOT include any of the works of Emma Lazarus, the author maintains she suffered a severe and prolonged nervous breakdown. She never revealed to Emerson how deeply grieved she felt. But in a recent article, "The 100th Birthday of Emma Lazarus," there was found an as-yet-unpublished document to Emerson, in which Miss Emma "protested to him in an agonizing letter." Rightly or wrongly, the author makes much ado about the emotional ties that bound daughter to father.  He compared her to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who was also a "father's girl," but who had the strength of will to break from him and marry the man of her heart, whereas Miss Lazarus remained a spinster all her life. Although the author gives many examples of her enslavement to her "father image," one feels that his attempt to explain the simple fact that she remained unmarried, is far too strained. This book, despite its "thinness" and its overstraining to create mysteries and psychological explanations, makes fascinating reading. It recalls the anguished years of the 19th century, with its Civil War aftermath, its Russian persecution of the Jews, its great moving tides of immigration, its cultural and spiritual conflicts, and its brilliant and great personalities. In this world, Emma Lazarus lived and wrote, and in her life and writings are reflected the sorrows and glories of her world.