Jane Jacobs Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Jane Jacobs
OCCUPATION: Activist, Journalist
BIRTH DATE: May 04, 1916
DEATH DATE: April 25, 2006
EDUCATION: Columbia University
PLACE OF BIRTH: Scranton, Pennsylvania
PLACE OF DEATH: Toronto, Canada

Best Known For

Author and activist Jane Jacobs wrote about preserving urban neighborhoods, in books like The Death and Life of Great American Cities and Dark Age Ahead.

Quiz

Think you know about Biography?

Answer questions and see how you rank against other players.

Play Now

Print Cite This

Jane Jacobs

APA Style

Jane Jacobs. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 07:42, May 19, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/jane-jacobs-9351679.

Harvard Style

Jane Jacobs. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jane-jacobs-9351679 [Accessed 19 May 2013].

MLA Style

"Jane Jacobs." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 19 2013, 07:42 http://www.biography.com/people/jane-jacobs-9351679.

MHRA Style

"Jane Jacobs," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/jane-jacobs-9351679 [accessed May 19, 2013].

Chicago Style

"Jane Jacobs," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/jane-jacobs-9351679 (accessed May 19, 2013).

CBE/CSE Style

Jane Jacobs [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 19] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jane-jacobs-9351679.

Bluebook Style

Jane Jacobs, http://www.biography.com/people/jane-jacobs-9351679 (last visited May 19, 2013).

AMA Style

Jane Jacobs. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/jane-jacobs-9351679. Accessed May 19, 2013.

Synopsis

Jane Jacobs was born on May 4, 1916, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. After working as a reporter and a freelance writer, she joined the editorial staff of Architectural Forum in 1952. Her first work on the urban environment, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, was published in 1961. She published her last book, Dark Age Ahead, in 2004. She died on April 25, 2006, in Toronto, Canada.

Early Life

Urban theorist and writer Jane Jacobs was born on May 4, 1916, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Although she had no formal training as an urban planner, Jane Jacobs revolutionized the way we look at cities. Her vision was inspired by her time living in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, a mixture of townhouses, walk-up apartment buildings and narrow streets that all fostered a sense of community.

Urban Environment Activism

After working as a reporter and a freelance writer, Jane Jacobs joined the editorial staff of Architectural Forum in 1952. She rallied against the push to modernize urban areas by tearing down established neighborhoods. Her first of many works on the urban environment, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, was published in 1961.

In the novel, Jacobs explored what makes a neighborhood vital and how that clashed with contemporary thinking on urban planning. She provided many examples of great neighborhoods, including her own—New York’s Greenwich Village. In addition to writing, Jacobs also worked on many campaigns to preserve certain neighborhoods. She served on the New York Planning Board for a time.

Personal Life and Later Years

Married to architect Robert Hyde Jacobs, Jr., since 1944, Jane Jacobs and her family relocated to Toronto, Canada, for her husband’s work in 1968. After leaving New York, she focused on her writing and became to expand the scope of her work. Some of her most notable works are Cities and the Wealth of Nations (1989), Systems of Survival (1992) and The Nature of Economies (2000).

In her final book, Dark Age Ahead (2004), Jane Jacobs expressed concern about cultural decay. She died on April 25, 2006, in Toronto, Canada.