Joseph Henry Jackson

Background

Jackson was born on July 21, 1894, in Madison, New Jersey, the son of Herbert Hallett Jackson and Marion Agnes Brown Jackson.

Education

Jackson was educated at the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, and attended Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, from 1915 to 1917. Jackson left college to organize an ambulance unit for duty in World War I; and after serving as a private in the United States Army Ambulance Corps, he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the infantry and taught for a time in the army's intelligence school.

Career

After the war Jackson settled in Berkeley, California. He wrote advertising copy for a short while, then became associate editor of Sunset magazine in 1920; he was made managing editor in 1924. In 1926 Jackson succeeded Charles K. Field as editor-in-chief of Sunset, but when the magazine changed hands in 1928, he became literary editor of Argonaut, a San Francisco weekly. He accepted the literary editorship of the San Francisco Chronicle in 1930, a position he held for the next twenty-five years. In addition to writing "Notes of a Bookman, " a daily column for the Chronicle that also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Jackson edited a Sunday book page. He early maintained that radio could be "an immensely valuable aid to those whose interest lies in fostering the growth of reading and book-buying. "

He started a weekly half-hour book review broadcast over radio station KGO in 1924. At first heard only over the Pacific Coast network of the National Broadcasting Company, the program, called "Bookman's Guide, " was later aired nationally by NBC. Jackson presented these talks on a regular basis until 1943. In some circles, especially on the Pacific Coast, his word was literary law. Both booksellers and publishers, who quoted his reviews and published manuscripts he recommended, valued Jackson because a good review by him sold books. Jackson not only reviewed books but also wrote and edited them. Although born in New Jersey, he had identified himself so completely with the West that he was thought by many to be a native Californian. Many of his books dealt with the history and people of his adopted state: Tintypes in Gold: Four Studies in Robbery (1939), Anybody's Gold: The Story of California's Mining Towns (1941), The California Story (1949), Bad Company: The Story of California's Stage-Robbers (1949), and My San Francisco: An Appreciation (1953). All are written in a popular style and are accurately documented. Jackson also edited several California-oriented anthologies: Continent's End: A Collection of California Writing (1944), The Gold Rush Album (1949), and The Western Gate: A San Francisco Reader (1952). Jackson's travels abroad and his abiding interest in crime stories led to the writing of other books. Mexican Interlude (1936) and Notes on a Drum (1937) resulted from trips to Mexico and Guatemala. In addition to writing The Girl in the Belfry (with Lenore Glen Offord, 1955), he edited such crime anthologies as The Portable Murder Book (1945) and San Francisco Murders (1947). Among Jackson's miscellaneous works are Extra! Extra! (with Scott Newhall, 1940), the story of newspapers, for juvenile readers, and The Christmas Flower (1951), an account of a Mexican Christmas legend. His own books, although neither philosophical nor profound, sold moderately well and still make good reading. Jackson died in San Francisco, on July 15, 1955.

Achievements

• Through his radio program, his Chronicle column, and his numerous reviews for magazines and newspapers, Jackson became one of America's best-known literary critics.

Works

More photos

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  • A Trip to the San Francisco Exposition (the Golden Gate International Exposition) With Bobby and Betty

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Bad Company: The Story of California's Legendary and Actual Stage-Robbers, Bandits, Highwaymen and Outlaws from the Fifties to the Eighties

    ( Bad Company begins with Joaquin Murieta, whose myth sta...)

  • Anybody's Gold: The Story of California's Mining Towns

    (This classic Chronicle book remains available as a print-...)

  • Mining camps : a study in American frontier government

    (Mining camps : a study in American frontier government. 3...)

  • Gold Rush Album.

    (No dust cover.)

Membership

Jackson is known to be a judge of the O. Henry Memorial Award (1935, 1942, 1951), a judge of the Harper Prize Novel contest (1947, 1949), and a member of the Pulitzer Prize fiction jury (1949-1951).

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Urbane and youthful-looking, Jackson was described by David Bramble as "balanced and highly intelligent, " with "a sense of humor that delights in the ridiculous. "

Connections

Jackson married Charlotte E. Cobden, a writer of children's books, in 1923; they had one daughter.

Father:

Herbert Hallett Jackson

Mother:

Marion Agnes Brown

Spouse:

Charlotte E. Cobden

References

• Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature
• Twentieth Century Authors First Supplement