Mary Antin
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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)
Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature:
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Works by Mary Antin
(1881-1949)
| 1899 | From Plotzk to Boston. At the age of eighteen, Antin publishes her first book, a translation of letters written in Yiddish to her uncle, describing her experiences as a Jewish immigrant in America. Antin immigrated to Boston from Russian Poland in 1894. |
| 1912 | The Promised Land. Antin's autobiography tells of her Polish upbringing, the immigration of her family to America, and the challenges of assimilation. It is one of the best treatments of the Jewish immigration experience in the pre-World War I era. |
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Mary Antin
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Mary Antin (June 13, 1881 – May 15, 1949) was an American author and immigration rights activist.
Born to a Jewish family in Polotsk, she immigrated to the Boston area with her mother and siblings in 1894, moving from Chelsea to Ward 8 in Boston's South End, a notorious slum, as the venue of her father's store changed. She married Amadeus William Grabau in 1901, and moved to New York City where she attended Teachers College of Columbia University and Barnard College. Antin is best known for her 1912 autobiography The Promised Land, which describes her public school education and assimilation into American culture, as well as life for Jews in Czarist Russia. After its publication, Antin lectured on her immigrant experience to many audiences across the country, and became a major supporter for Theodore Roosevelt and his Progressive Party.
Further reading
- A. Mazur, A Romance in Natural History, Garret. 2004.
External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mary Antin |
- Review at the National Yiddish Book Center
- Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Women's History at search.eb.com
- Vom Ghetto ins Land der Verheissung, 1913 (digitized version)
- Pamela S. Nadell, Mary Antin, Jewish Women Encyclopedia
- Works by Mary Antin at Project Gutenberg
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Houghton Mifflin Chronology of US Literature
The Chronology of American Literature, edited by Daniel S. Burt. Copyright © 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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