Reveals The Statue of Liberty in new ways by blending magnificent art and unvarnished history.

Contributor: Joan Marans Dim Joan Marans Dim is a historian, novelist, and essayist. Her published work includes the novel Recollections of a Rotten Kid. She also co-wrote two histories—the saga of New York University, Miracle on Washington Square, and, most recently, New York’s Golden Age of Bridges. Her essays and op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, the New York Daily News, Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily, The Huffington Post, and many other publications. She also participated in the New York Times’s video City Living: A Tale of Two Bridges. Critics, citing the scope and depth of her work, describe her prose as laced with impressive depth, a droll wit, and an elegant narrative. --- Contributor: Antonio Masi Antonio Masi is a world-class and award-winning artist often honored for his depictions of bridges; his magnificent paintings are exclusively featured in the book New York’s Golden Age of Bridges. Masi is also president of the American Watercolor Society. His artistry has been featured in Artist’s Magazine, PBS–Sunday Arts, NBCToday, Newsday, and many other venues. He also participated in the New York Times’s video City Living: A Tale of Two Bridges. A sought-after artistic master and scholar, he travels the world as a teacher, demonstrator, and lecturer.

The gift of the Statue of Liberty preceded the founding of Henry Street Settlement by a mere seven years, and both endure as iconic symbols of welcome, 'inexorably linked to America’s immigrant saga,' in Joan Marans Dim’s words. Yet the sobering message of Lady Liberty is that the revered statue in many ways symbolizes what the United States is not. This well-researched volume makes clear that today’s immigration debates are a continuation of a tension stretching across the American centuries between warm embrace and harsh rejection of newcomers. That Miss Liberty stands in the harbor as an ideological and visual bulwark against anti-immigrant fervor forces us to face the contradictions of who we are as a nation and gives hope to all those who carry on the struggle to keep our doors and our hearts open.---David Garza, Executive Director, Henry Street Settlement --- The Statue of Liberty is a world famous symbol of American freedom, but for those who made the arduous journey across the Atlantic, she was a signal of arrival, proclaiming the end of a long voyage and the start of a new life. In the book, Lady Liberty, writer Joan Marans Dim tells the origin story of the statue and its significance in the overall story of the immigrant experience in the U.S. Award-winning artist Antonio Masi’s expressive artwork lends powerful visuals to the telling with compelling images of the statue itself and the Ellis Island gateway, as well as the faces of individual immigrants and families—faces that express both the optimism and the struggle. The book is both enlightening and affecting.---Anne Hevener is the Editor-in-Chief of Artists Magazine, Watercolor Artist and Pastel Journal. She has been working as a publishing professional for 25+ years. --- In this powerful combination of literature and art--the essays of Joan Marans Dim and the paintings of Antonio Masi--we discover the story of the Statue of Liberty: the artistic vision of Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the engineering genius of Gustave Eiffel, the unforgettable sonnet of Emma Lazarus, the young Jewish poet who welcomed huddled masses to our shores. The strength and originality of this accessible book lie in the interweaving of the statue's inspiration with the often disappointing reality of our history. We are a nation that has struggled with its own ideals, and Dim and Masi have helped us see that struggle anew. This is an important work, as lovely and moving as it is unsettling.---Frye Gaillard, award-winning journalist and the author of more than 25 books, including Hard Rain is Writer-in-Residence at the University of Southern Alabama --- Could there be a book more timely, more pertinent for America today than Lady Liberty? I do not think so. The book is a beautiful reminder of what makes us so special, blended with the history that tells us that if America loses our welcoming soul, we have lost what makes us so special.---David Lawrence Jr., retired publisher of the Miami Herald and chair of The Children's Movement of Florida