Mary Antin

{{Short description|American author and immigration rights activist}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Mary Antin

| image = Mary Antin 1915.jpg

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption = Antin in 1915

| birth_name = Mary Antin

| birth_date = June 13, 1881

| birth_place = Polotsk, Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire

| death_date = {{death date and age|1949|05|15|1881|06|13}}

| death_place = Suffern, New York

| resting_place =

| language =

| nationality =

| ethnicity =

| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

Teachers College, Columbia University (1901–1902)
Barnard College (1902–1904)}}

| period =

| genre = Memoir

| movement =

| notableworks = The Promised Land

| spouse = Amadeus William Grabau (m. Oct. 5, 1901)

| children = Josephine Esther

| awards =

| signature =

| signature_alt =

}}

Image:Mary Antin- promised Land 1912.gif]]

Image:Mary Antin (Mashke) and sister and Fetchke - Project Gutenberg eText 20885.jpg

Mary Antin (born Maryashe Antin; June 13, 1881 – May 15, 1949) was an American author and immigration rights activist. She is best known for her 1912 autobiography The Promised Land, an account of her emigration and subsequent Americanization.

Life

Mary Antin was the second of six children born to Israel and Esther Weltman Antin, a Jewish family living in Polotsk, in the Vitebsk Governorate of the Russian Empire (present-day Belarus). Israel Antin emigrated to Boston in 1891, and three years later he sent for Mary and her mother and siblings.{{cite web|first=Pamela S.|last=Nadell |access-date=2014-01-17|url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/antin-mary|title=Mary Antin profile|work=Jewish Women's Archive}}

She married Amadeus William Grabau, a geologist, 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.

During World War I, while she campaigned for the Allied cause, her husband's pro-German activities precipitated their separation and her physical breakdown. Amadeus was forced to leave his post at Columbia University to work in China, where he became "the father of Chinese geology." She was never physically strong enough to visit him there.

During World War II, Amadeus was interned by the Japanese and died shortly after his release in 1946. Mary Antin died of cancer on May 15, 1949.{{cite web|first=Pamela S.|last=Nadell|access-date=2014-01-17 |url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/antin-mary|title=Mary Antin|work=Jewish Women's Archive}}

{{cite book|chapter=Amadeus William Grabau|title=Dictionary of American Biography|location=New York|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=1974|id=Gale Document Number: GALE BT2310012533|via=Fairfax County Public Library|chapter-url=http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=BIC1&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=BIC1&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CBT2310012533&source=Bookmark&u=fairfax_main&jsid=2c964215ca19b5f138ab42a38d7eeccc|title-link=Dictionary of American Biography}} Biography in Context. {{subscription required}}

Legacy

She is commemorated on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.{{cite web|title=Mary Antin|url=http://bwht.org/mary-antin/|website=Boston Women's Heritage Trail}}

Notes

External links

{{commons category-inline}}
{{wikiquote-inline}}
[http://search.eb.com/women/articles/Antin_Mary.html Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Women's History] at search.eb.com
[http://pds.lib.harvard.edu/pds/view/3723537 Vom Ghetto ins Land der Verheissung], 1913 (digitized version)
Pamela S. Nadell, [http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/antin-mary Mary Antin], Jewish Women Encyclopedia
{{Gutenberg author |id=9433| name=Mary Antin}}
{{Internet Archive author |sname=Mary Antin}}
{{Librivox author |id=4704}}
[http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/antin-mary The Jewish Women's Archive] entry on Mary Antin
Monica Rüthers, Between Threat and Hope. Migration to the New World. Mary Antin’s Account, in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History, June 27, 2017. {{doi|10.23691/jgo:article-53.en.v1}}