Mary Antin
- Born: June 13, 1881
- Birthplace: Polotsk, Russia
- Died: May 15, 1949
Mary Antin was born to a Jewish family in Polotsk, Russia, in 1881. It being a period of pogroms, Antin's family decided to emigrate to the United States, when she was thirteen years old, and they settled in Boston. Antin was fifteen years old when she had her first poem published inThe Boston Herald. Later, the letters she sent to her uncle living in Russia were also published in The American Hebrew. They were printed in a book, From Plotzk to Boston, in 1899, when Antin was just 18 years old.
Antin moved to New York, and in 1901 she married Amadeus Grabau, a professor at Columbia University. She wrote several articles for Atlantic Monthly, and, in 1912 she published her autobiography, The Promised Land. It was a critical and popular success, and was used in civics classes as the authoritative representation of the immigrant experience for many years. Her book, They Who Knock at Our Gates: A Complete Gospel of Immigration, was written in 1914.
A supporter of Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Party, Antin was one of the leading campaigners against restrictive immigration legislation.
Most Famous Works
- From Plotzk to Boston (1899)
- The Promised Land (1912)
- They Who Knock at Our Gates: A Complete Gospel of Immigration (1914)
