Books with title Emma's Poem: The Voice of the Statue of Liberty

Introduction by David McCulloughThe first truly comprehensive history of America's most compelling symbol, the Statue of Liberty, is the result of more than three years of research. The authors, Christian Blanchet and Bernard Dard, sought out original sources, interviewed over 1,000 people, and combed through more than 100 museums, collections, and libraries to compile this definitive history.Here is the little-known story of the statue's origins and the people who brought it to completion – such as Édouard de Laboulaye, who wanted to give the United States a gift that would both commemorate a friendship and make a political statement, engineering genius Gustave Eiffel, and above all, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the visionary sculptor who gave form to the idea of this colossal statue. A consummate entrepreneur, politician, and fundraiser, Bartholdi almost single-handedly sold his idea to a skeptical, and at times, unfriendly American public, who would later come to idolize his statue as a symbol of freedom and acceptance.

Give me your tired, your poorYour huddled masses yearning to breathe free...Who wrote these words? And why? In 1883, Emma Lazarus, deeply moved by an influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, wrote a sonnet that was to give voice to the Statue of Liberty. Originally a gift from France to celebrate our shared national struggles for liberty, the Statue, thanks to Emma's poem, slowly came to shape our hearts, defining us as a nation that welcomes and gives refuge to those who come to our shores.

One of the most famous American symbols, the Statue of Liberty stands for freedom and opportunity. Standing on Liberty Island at the tip of New York City, the statue welcomed immigrants from around the world to America's shores. Built by France as a gift to America after the Revolutionary War, the statue's torch spreads the light of freedom into the world.