This picture book biography by Erica Silverman tells the story of Emma Lazarus, who is famous for the poem that is engraved on the plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty. This book, appropriate for all ages, tells of Emma's life as a poet, including studying with Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Emma was asked to write a poem in honor of the gift of the Statue of Liberty from France to the United States. At first she thought she couldn't write a poem "to order," but then became inspired as she thought of her deep desire that newcomers to the country be welcomed and treated with respect. This inspiration became the poem containing her very famous words: "....Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore...."
Emma never knew how famous her words would become, as she died in 1887...and the poem was engraved on the base of the statue in 1903. At her funeral, a mourner wrote: "We lament the loss to humanity of a women of high ideas and noble enthusiasms, a courageous and chivalrous fighter whose lance was raised effectively in defence of the oppressed."