author
Edward Henry Jacob
Known for lively, wide-ranging nonfiction, this German-born writer turned subjects like coffee, bread, and the life of the biblical Joseph into engaging works of history and culture. His life was also marked by exile and survival, experiences that shaped both his journalism and his books.
1 Audiobook
A study of mushrooms and mushroom spawn
by Edward Henry Jacob
About the author
Born in Berlin in 1889 and raised partly in Vienna, Heinrich Eduard Jacob — also published as Henry Edward Jacob and Edward Henry Jacob — worked as a journalist and author during the Weimar years. He wrote fiction, biography, and cultural history, building a reputation for clear, vivid writing on big human subjects.
His life changed dramatically under Nazi rule. Jacob, who was Jewish, was imprisoned in Dachau and Buchenwald before eventually escaping Europe and later becoming an American citizen. That history of displacement and survival remained an important part of how his work has been remembered.
Jacob is especially noted today for nonfiction books such as Coffee: The Epic of a Commodity, Six Thousand Years of Bread, and The World of Emma Lazarus. He also wrote Joseph the Provider, a novel based on the biblical Joseph, showing the same interest in history, culture, and the forces that shape everyday life.