Emma Lazarus 

Emma Lazarus was born in New York City on July 22, 1849, to a family with a strong Jewish heritage. Her father was a wealthy sugar refiner, and both parents came from families of high position and some distinction in this country. Eventually, her household would become home to seven children, all but one of the girls.

Although her family was deeply rooted in their Jewish heritage, they were not extremely religious. She was educated at home and started writing and translating poetry from a very young age.

In 1866, her father had her first collection of poetry privately printed, and in the next year, had it published by Hurd and Houghton. Her only novel, Alide, was published in 1874, and her only play was written and privately printed in 1876. Eventually, she started translating Jewish poems from the time of Medieval Spain and became a contributor to both Hebrew and American magazines.

For her entire life, she was motivated and dedicated to her Jewish heritage, and her activist work proves it. After visiting an immigrant camp, she became one of the founders of the Hebrew Technical Institute and became an important member of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society.

Outside of her activist work, she spent most of her time writing. She published four books of poetry and one novel throughout her lifetime, which were all praised by influential writers like Robert Browning and Henry George. She is most famous for the verse from "The New Colossus," that is engraved upon the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

It was placed there in 1985, nearly 100 years after it was written. The purpose of the verse is to reaffirm the idea that the Statue of Liberty is a welcoming face for those entering the country, and that the United States is a great nation of immigrants. Emma Lazarus passed away on November 19, 1887, in New York City. It is believed that she passed of Hodgkin's lymphoma, which she might have gotten while on a trip to Europe.

Notable Works:

Book: The Poems of Emma Lazarus

Poems: "The New Colossus"

"In the Jewish Synagogue at Newport"

"Progress and Poverty"

Source: Wagenknecht, Edward. "Emma Lazarus." Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism

Sui Sin Far

Edith Maud Eaton, known mainly by her pen name, Sui Sin Far, was born in Macclesfield, England. She was born on March 15, 1865, to Grace Trefusius - a Chinese woman adopted by an English couple, and Edward Eaton - an Englishman and struggling painter. Edith Eaton was the eldest daughter of fourteen children, and her family was poverty-stricken for most of her life.

In her early teens, Eaton began publishing poems and articles for the local newspaper, which, in turn, made her one of the first Asian American writers of fiction.

Unlike many women of Chinese ancestry during the time, she refused to hide her heritage; instead, she asserted it proudly. When Eaton was a teenager, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 passed in the United States, restricting Chinese immigrants from entering the country and from becoming citizens.

Because of this, she experienced discrimination wherever she went. She documented this discrimination in many of her short stories and poems. Her stories were collected into a single book titled, Mrs. Spring Fragrance.

Most of these stories are set in San Francisco or Seattle, where she lived for some of her adult life. She died on April 7, 1914, of natural causes, and is buried in a cemetery in Montreal. As an expression of gratitude, the Chinese community erected a headstone where she is buried that is engraved to say, "The righteous one does not forget China."

Notable Works:

Mrs. Spring Fragrance

Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian

Source: Heath Anthology of American Literature

Willa Cather

Willa Cather was born on December 6th, 1873 in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. She was the eldest child of her parents, Charles and Mary Cather. She grew up on a farm and remembers enjoying stories she heard from neighbor women early on in her childhood.

These stories would be her earliest encounter with narrative work and storytelling, and would shape her experiences as a writer later on. At age nine, Charles Cather, Willa Cather's father, decided to move them from Virginia to Nebraska, which was a change that she did not enjoy at first.

Eventually, however, she grew to love Nebraska, and it became the setting for many of her novels. While living in Nebraska, she met a variety of immigrants from all over Europe; this mix of people consisted of immigrants from Scandinavia, France, Russia, and Bohemia. Eventually, Willa Cather's father moved them to a small town in Nebraska, where should would attend school and learn different trades from the storekeepers, doctors, and immigrant farm women.

It was during this time that she also began to reject the gender roles that she was expected to fulfil at her age. When she was fourteen, she cut her hair short and started calling herself, "William Cather Jr." Eventually, she would find a middle ground; she dropped the name William and began redefining what being a woman meant to her.

She moved to Lincoln and graduated from the University of Nebraska. Here, she also published, "Peter," her first short story. She also became close with Dorothy Canfield and Louise Pound - many people who study her today believe that she had a romantic relationship with Louise Pound, and exclusively dated women throughout her life.

Her first novel, Alexander's Bridge, was published in 1912, and O Pioneers!, possibly her most popular novel, was published less than a year later in 1913. As she continued her literary career, she won a Pulitzer Prize for One of Ours (1922), and received honorary degrees from major universities.

In 1918, she published My Antonia, which many people regard as a semi-autobiographical piece of literature; it was also the one piece of writing she cared most deeply about.

Unlike most writers, Cather was able to consistently publish phenomenal pieces of literature throughout her entire life. Later in her life, she was subject to failing health and experienced the beginning of World War II. She also witnessed the death of many friends and family members.

She stopped writing due to pain and refused to dictate to anyone what she would write on a page. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 24, 1947, in New York City.

Notable Works:

My Antonia

O Pioneers!

Sapphira and the Slave Girl

Source: O'Brien, Sharon. "Cather, Willa 1873—1947." American Writers, Retrospective Supplement 1

Anzia Yezierska

Anzia Yezierska's exact date of birth is unknown, although it is believed that she was born in the year 1880. She was born in a Polish-Russian village but grew up on the Lower East Side of New York City. Her family, which contained nine children, lived in a Jewish ghetto for most of her childhood.

Due to a large number of children in her household, she left elementary school to help support her family financially. However, growing up, she had a passion for learning and a strong will. In 1901, she lied about having a high school diploma and gained admittance to Columbia University.

In 1911, she married for the first time but left her husband the next day. The next year, she married and had a daughter, but temporarily left her new family to pursue writing. In 1913, she began to write short stories and was able to publish her first collection, Hungry Hearts, in 1920.

Soon after, she was offered $10,000 by Samuel Goldwyn, who wanted to turn her book into a motion picture. He also told her she would be allowed to work on the screenplay in Hollywood. After accepting this offer, Yezierska and a screenplay writer created the text for the movie; however, it was edited by a comic writer, who took out most of the dialogue that revolved around the poor conditions of the ghetto.

Yezierska was given no credit for the writing. After one month in Hollywood, Yezierska moved back to New York. Although she enjoyed having an income after living in poverty for most of her childhood, she felt as though the stress and backstabbing that took place in California was causing her to fail at creating more pieces of literature.

Back in New York, she published Salome of the Tenements in 1922. It was also bought by a movie production company, but Yezierska was not involved in its production. In 1923, she released a novel titled Children of Loneliness. Yezierska was mostly ignored after the 1930s, due to mixed reviews on her published works.

However, she was rediscovered during the Women's Movement, due to her literature revolving around the struggles of immigrant women and women in poverty. In 1950, she published her autobiography, Red Ribbon on a White Horse. Twenty years later, in 1970, she passed away.

Notable Works:

How I Found America: Short Stories
Hungry Hearts
Children of Loneliness

Source:

Women Film Pioneer Project - Anzia Yezierska

Jovita Gonazlez

Jovita González was born in Roma, Texas on a ranch belonging to her grandparents in January of 1904. Her father was a teacher in Tamaulipas, a Latin American state. She spoke only Spanish when she moved to San Antonio in 1910, mainly because her father did not allow English to be spoken at home.

As a child, she was taught at home by her father but attended schools in Roma and San Antonio, Texas. As a young adult, she received her Bachelor's degree in Spanish from Our Lady of the Lake College. In 1930, she attended the University of Texas and received her master's degree.

At this time, she started collecting and documenting Mexican folklore in the Rio Grande Valley. She was also one of the first Mexican-American people to get a master's degree and work as a teacher. She was also the first and only Mexican-American woman to serve as president of the Texas Folklore Society.

After obtaining her master's, González taught Spanish at St. Mary's Hall in San Antonio. She married Edmundo E. Mireles in 1935. They moved to the San Felipe School District, where she ran the English Department. It was during this time that she began to write Spanish textbooks for children in the school district. Overall, she wrote six books for six different grade levels. These textbooks included folk songs and Hispanic history.

González and her husband created the Corpus Christi Spanish Program, which promoted Spanish in public schools, and were active as club sponsors for many other organizations with the same goal.

While she was working in the school district, she published her own books, such as, "Folklore of the Texas-Mexican Vaquero," "America Invades the Border Towns," and, "Among My People".

She was the first person of Mexican descent to publish an article in the book, Our Radical and National Minorities: Their History, Contributions, and Present Problems. During her lifetime, she was able to produce literature in a variety of forms, and mastered the art of writing narrative and proverbs. Jovita González died of natural causes in 1983.

Notable Works:

"Among My People"

"With the Coming of the Barbed Wire Came Hunger"

Source: Texas State Historical Society