Statue of Liberty in Popular Culture - in Literature

In Literature

  • A 1911 O. Henry story relates a fanciful conversation between "Mrs. Liberty" and another statue; "The Lady Higher Up" relates a fanciful dialog between the statue and the then-famous Statue of Diana at Madison Square Garden. In the story, Diana asks "Mrs. Liberty" why she speaks with what Diana terms a "City Hall brogue." Liberty answers: "If ye'd studied the history of art in its foreign complications ye'd not need to ask. If ye wasn't so light-headed and giddy ye'd know that I was made by a Dago and presented to the American people on behalf of the French Government for the purpose of welcomin' Irish immigrants into the Dutch city of New York."
  • During the 1940s and 1950s, the iconography of science fiction in the United States was filled with images of ancient, decayed Statues of Liberty, set in the distant future. The covers of famous pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories and Astounding Science Fiction all featured Lady Liberty at one time, surrounded by ruins or by the sediments of the ages, as curious aliens or representatives of advanced or degenerate humans of the future gazed upon her remains. The February 1941 cover of Astounding showed a primitive man and woman approaching on a raft a Statue of Liberty surrounded by wild growth.
  • Jack Finney's 1970 novel Time and Again takes advantage of the presence, in 1882, of just the arm and torch of the statue in Madison Square Park for an important plot development.
  • In the first novel Sabrina of Scott M. Stockton's Power of the Gods series, the Statue of Liberty is heavily damaged during an earthquake in chapter 28. In which the author implies that his central character had generated massive land-movement with the use of her paranormal capabilities, while three teenage girls stood on the statue's torch during a high school field-trip.
  • In the final scene of Maggie-Now by Betty Smith, two characters scatter Maggie's late husband's ashes from the statue's torch.
  • In Amerika by Franz Kafka, the author inaccurately depicts the statue as holding aloft a sword rather than a torch.
  • The DC Comics superhero Miss America was originally granted her powers by the Statue in a vision. This was later retconned to have been a dream; she had really gained her powers from an experiment.
  • In the Marvel Comics universe, the torch of the Statue of Liberty is the secret meeting spot between superheroes Spider-Man and his friend/confidant Human Torch.
  • The final chapter of Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach reveals that "The Glow-worm became the light inside the torch on the Statue of Liberty, and thus saved a grateful City from having to pay a huge electricity bill every year."
  • Ellen Kushner's 1986 Choose Your Own Adventure book Statue of Liberty Adventure has the protagonist exploring the statue to find its original inspiration.
  • In a special gibi Cinema Classics of the Monica's Gang, the name of the history of the planet was Coelinhos, a page in the Statue of Liberty appears mired in the sand.
  • In the disaster novels Her Name Will Be Faith and Category 7: The Biggest Storm in History hurricanes cause storm surges that topple the statue into the Hudson River.
  • The history of the Statue of Liberty is told in the 2008 book Lady Liberty: A Biography., written by Doreen Rapppaport, illustrated by Matt Tavares.
  • In a 1970's issue of Wonder Woman (DC Comics)(cover), Villainous Sorcerer, Felix Faust turns the Statue of Liberty into a living enemy of the Princess.
  • In the Sinfest webcomic Lady Liberty, a humanized version of the Statue, is the spouse of a similarly humanized Uncle Sam. Owing to their iconic status as embodiements of current America, while Uncle Sam is shown as often worried, affected by financiary woes and bouts of depression, Lady Liberty is shown as a quiet, nurturing and loving spouse, doing her best to help her husband around, but still prone to overreaction.
  • Giannina Braschi's dramatic novel "United States of Banana" (AmazonCrossing 2011) takes place after the September 11, 2001 attacks, at the Statue of Liberty, where a political prisoner from Puerto Rico is trapped in the dungeon of liberty beneath the 11-pointed star that serves as the base of the Statue.

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