Jane Jacobs

Journalist

Birthday May 4, 1916

Birth Sign Taurus

Birthplace Scranton, PA

DEATH DATE Apr 25, 2006 (89)

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About

An American-Canadian journalist and author, she is best known for The Death and Life of Great American Cities, a groundbreaking work that criticized urban renewal. She is often regarded as one of the main influences behind the New Urbanist movement.

Before Fame

After graduating from high school in Pennsylvania, she worked as an unpaid assistant editor for the Scranton Tribune. When she first moved to New York City, she worked as a stenographer and a freelance writer before becoming a reporter for the U.S. State Department's publication, Amerika.

Trivia

She was both an urban-themed author and a political activist.

Family Life

She married Robert Hyde Jacobs in 1944. An opponent of the Vietnam War, she moved to Canada in the late 1960s and lived in Toronto for the remainder of her life.

Associated With

Joseph Gordon shares her alma mater, Columbia University.