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Book Cover for: Ellis Island: A People's History, Malgorzata Szejnert

Ellis Island: A People's History

Malgorzata Szejnert

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A dramatic, multi-vocal account of the personal agonies and ecstasies that played out within the walls of Ellis Island, as told by Poland's greatest living journalist.

This is the people's history of Ellis Island--the people who passed through it, and the people who were turned away from it.

From Annie Moore, the Irishwoman who was the first to be processed there, to Arne Peterssen, the Norwegian who was the last to be taken away from the island via the official ferry boat in 1954, Ellis Island weaves together the personal experiences of forgotten individuals with those who live on in history: Fiorello La Guardia, Lee Iacocca, and other American leaders whose paths led them to the Island for various reasons through the years.

Award-winning journalist Malgorzata Szejnert draws on unpublished testimonies, memoirs, archival photographs, and correspondence from many internees and immigrants, including Russians, Italians, Jews, Japanese, Germans, and Poles. At the book's core is a trove of personal letters from immigrants to their loved ones back home--letters which were confiscated and never delivered, finally discovered in a basement in Warsaw.

But also brought to life are the Ellis Island employees: the doctors, nurses, commissioners, interpreters, social care workers, and even chaperones, who controlled the fates of these émigrés--often basing their decisions on pseudo-scientific ideas about race, gender, and disability. Sometimes families were broken up, and new arrivals were detained and quarantined for days, weeks, or even months.

All told, the island compound spent longer as an internment camp than as a migration way-point--in addition to filling other roles through the years, including that of rescue station in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Now brought back to life by a master storyteller, this is a story of a place and its people, steeped in politics and history, that reshaped the United States.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Scribe Us
  • Publish Date: Sep 6th, 2022
  • Pages: 400
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 9.10in - 6.00in - 1.20in - 1.10lb
  • EAN: 9781957363028
  • Categories: • Emigration & Immigration• North American• Historiography

About the Author

Gasper Bye, Sean: -

Sean Gasper Bye is a translator of Polish, French, and Russian literature. His translations of fiction, reportage, and drama have appeared in Words Without Borders, Catapult, and Continents, and he is a winner of the 2016 Asymptote Close Approximations Prize. He was awarded an NEA Translation Fellowship to work on this book.

Szejnert, Malgorzata: -

For forty years, Malgorzata Szejnert (b. 1936) has been one of Poland's most important nonfiction writers and editors, shaping a generation of Polish literary reportage. She began writing about challenging social issues in the 1970s, and was an active member of the opposition during the Solidarity period. After the fall of Communism, she co-founded Poland's leading daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and led its reportage division for 15 years. Since retiring, she has devoted herself entirely to book writing. Her topics range from Poland to America to Zanzibar, always with a warm, personal focus, allowing marginalized people to speak for themselves through her work.

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Praise for this book

"To me Malgorzata Szejnert embodies the image of Poland ... She has grace, a gentle tone, and a serene gaze."
--Svetlana Alexievich, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and author of Secondhand Time

"This 'people's history' comprises intimate views of Ellis Island both from immigrants and from staff, including doctors, social workers, commissioners, and interpreters (among them the future mayor Fiorello LaGuardia). Policies were shaped by anti-Semitism, fear of Communism, and xenophobia, and monthly immigration quotas in the twenties led to 'a peculiar type of boat race' in New York Harbor, as ships rushed to deliver their passengers. Szejnert also records the idealism and the compassion of those employed there--such as the social worker who gave new arrivals stylish American clothing--many of whom were immigrants themselves."
--The New Yorker

"As Szejnert shows, it would be difficult to find a scrap of land that better revealed the moral state of the Northern hemisphere during the first half of the 20th century than Ellis Island ... a pleasurable read for anyone wanting to know more about those who immigrated to the United States and those who, because of prejudice or sheer bad luck, never made it."
--LA Review of Books

"Making extensive use of primary documents, including letters written by immigrants to family in the old country, the author captures the mingled hope and fear experienced as people entered the massive main building ... Szejnert does not scant the fear of 'degraded, backward' people 'unfit to join into American life' that culminated in the 1924 law that basically slammed the door on Italian and Jewish immigration. But her emphasis is on the immigrants' fortitude and resilience and the empathetic assistance of Ellis Island personnel--many themselves immigrants ... Warmly human and extremely moving--a welcome addition to the Ellis Island literature."
--Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"With fine-grained details and fluid writing, Szejnert humanizes the immigrant experience in late 19th- and early 20th-century America."
--Publishers Weekly

"In addition to filling a gap in American history, [Ellis Island] gives attention to a female journalist in the male-dominated genre of Polish reportage. Anyone looking to learn more about the history of immigration in the United States will enjoy this intimate portrayal of American history."
--Asymptote Journal

"Drawing on a huge archive of previously unpublished correspondence and recordings, a Polish journalist and outstanding storyteller brings alive the experiences of immigrants who ended up at Ellis Island as well as the wide range of employees who dealt with them. It's a story that is still relevant today."
--Matt Witt, World Wide Work

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