19 Facts About Dan Jacobson

Dan Jacobson was a South African novelist, short story writer, critic and essayist of Lithuanian Jewish descent.

Dan Jacobson was born 7 March 1929, in Johannesburg, South Africa, where his parents' families had come to avoid the persecution of Jews and to escape poverty in their European homelands.

Dan Jacobson's father, Hyman Michael Jacobson, was born in Ilukste, Latvia, in 1885.

Dan Jacobson's mother, Liebe Jacobson, was born in Kelme, Lithuania, in 1896.

Dan Jacobson's grandfather, Heshel Melamed, was a rabbi, and refused to leave Lithuania after traveling to the United States and finding that many Jews were not following their religion.

Dan Jacobson later wrote in his memoir Heshel's Kingdom about his travels back to Lithuania to find out more information about his grandfather.

When Dan Jacobson was four, the family moved from Johannesburg to Kimberley, which was then under British control.

Dan Jacobson began to observe the ways that the government, churches, and the newspapers justified the ill treatment of blacks.

Dan Jacobson was stunned at the mob mentality, seeing how a few leaders of the class could control the actions of the entire group.

Dan Jacobson attended Boys' High School in Kimberley and graduated at the age of 16.

Dan Jacobson returned to Johannesburg in 1951 and worked for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies as a public relations assistant and then as a journalist for Press Digest.

Dan Jacobson returned to England in 1957, determined to seek greater depth in his writing.

Dan Jacobson was a visiting fellow at the State University of New York at Buffalo in the summer of 1971.

Dan Jacobson took a position at the University of London as a lecturer; from 1979 to 1987 he was a reader in English.

Dan Jacobson's writing focus then shifted to moral and ethical issues involving all of humanity.

Dan Jacobson's goal was to have a textual analysis as a narrative.

Dan Jacobson started with his grandfather's identity document, spectacles, an address book, an old photograph, and the memories of relatives.

Dan Jacobson did find that in 1941, within six weeks, the Nazis essentially wiped out the Lithuanian Jewish community, killing 210,000 Jewish people.

Dan Jacobson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007.