Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of the Universal Language

In 1887, Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof, a Polish Jew, had the idea of putting an end to tribalism by creating a universal language, one that would be equally accessible to everyone in the world. The result was Esperanto, a utopian scheme full of the brilliance, craziness, and grandiosity that characterize all such messianic visions. We invite you to a discussion of Professor Schor’s rich and passionate biography of a language and the dream of world harmony it sought to realize. The author will be joined by her colleague, historian Martha Sandweiss. Full event details.

Esther Schor is the author of Emma Lazarus, which received a 2006 National Jewish Book Award, and the editor of the Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley. Her essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Times Literary Supplement, and The Forward, among other publications. Her first collection of poems, The Hills of Holland, was a nominee for the Los Angeles Times Book Awards. She is professor of English at Princeton University. Martha Sandweiss is Professor of History at Princeton. She the author or editor of numerous books. They include Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception across the Color Line, and Print the Legend: Photography and the American West.