Emma Lazarus. Songs of a Semite: The Dance to Death, and Other Poems.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA)

Philip Cowen

New York

1882

With contemporary ownership inscription (Eleanor Tobias, 1887). Bound in: Portrait of Lazarus, an obituary and clippings and manuscript transcriptions of poetry.

Singerman 3081

Emma Lazarus was one of the most celebrated American poets of the nineteenth century, but it was only with her Songs of a Semite that she became known as a Jewish poet per se. Initially indifferent to her Jewish heritage, her early verse exhibits no Jewish influences. After the Russian outrages of 1881, however, she emerged as a spokesperson for refugees from Russian pogroms and as an advocate of Zionism. The following year Lazarus broke new literary ground with Songs of a Semite, which, as its title boldly proclaims, was saturated with Jewish themes. This literary volte-face was greeted with critical acclaim by reviewers in the general press, who encouraged her to continue drawing inspiration from her Jewish heritage. See JTSA Catalogue, People of Faith, Land of Promise (2004) pp. 112-3.