"One hesitates to lift the veil and throw the light upon a life so hidden and a personality so withdrawn as that of Emma Lazarus." --Josephine Lazarus in Emma Lazarus, 1888 Emma Lazarus was an American author, poet and activist of Jewish causes who became famous for her sonnet The New Colossus (1883) with its lines inscribed on a bronze plaque installed on the Statue of Liberty. After Emma Lazarus' death in 1887, her sister Josephine wrote a biographical essay, Emma Lazarus, in The Century Magazine in 1888. This essay was later included in the collection The Poems of Emma Lazarus (1889).