Born July 22, 1849

New York, New York

Died November 19, 1887

New York, New York

Author of the famous poem that appears on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, and Jewish rights advocate

Emma Lazarus. © Bettmann/Corbis.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…"

If Emma Lazarus had done nothing else in life, writing the poem "The New Colossus" would have preserved her name in American history. Engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty (see entry in volume 2) in New York Harbor, the poem seems to capture the spirit of the woman holding a torch aloft, as if to light the way for the flood of European immigrants streaming into the United States when the lines were written in 1883: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore...