The Tenement Writer

An Immigrant’s Story

de Ben Sonder, Alex Haley, Meryl Rosner

The Tenement Writer: An Immigrant’s Story follows a young Jewish immigrant from Poland as she struggles to build a new life in America and fulfill her dreams of becoming a writer. In her native Polish village, a little Jewish girl named Anzia Yezierska dreams of coming to America. When her dream comes true, she finds the streets in America aren’t paved with gold and that life in America can also be a struggle. Around 1890, Anzia Yezierska and her family arrived in New York from Poland to join her brother, renamed “Mayer.” Taking the name Hattie Mayer, Anzia had to adjust to a new life in a tenement, safer than Poland but drearier. After she had worked for a long time and attended school, Anzia Yezierska began to write about the life of an immigrant who hated being poor. By the 1920s, she had become a well-known American immigrant writer. Her success caused a sensation. Newspapers called her the “Sweatshop Cinderella” and published articles about her “rags to riches” life. Ben Sonder is a published author of young adult and children’s books. Some of his published credits include: The Tenement Writer: An Immigrant’s Story (Stories of America), Gangs (Life Issues) and Osceola, Patriot And Warrior (Stories of America). Meryl Rosner is a published author and illustrator of children’s books. Some of her published credits include: The Tenement Writer: An Immigrant’s Story (Stories of America) and Ella Of All-of-a-kind Family (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition). Alex Haley, as General Editor, wrote the introduction.