Chip Jacobs

Chip Jacobs is an award-winning American author and journalist. His books include the Los Angeles Times bestselling novel "Arroyo," historical fiction set around construction of Pasadena, California's mysterious Colorado Street (aka "Suicide) Bridge in 1913; the international bestselling "Smogtown: the Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles" and its sequel about China's globalization-fueled environmental catastrophe, "The People's Republic of Chemicals," (both with William J. Kelly); the Indies Book of the Year finalist for biograph,y "Strange As It Seems: the Impossible Life of Gordon Zahler," and; the Fargo-esque "The Darkest Glare: A True Story of Murder, Blackmail, and Real Estate Greed in 1979 Los Angeles." His' reporting and subjects have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Slate, Wired, C-Span, the Los Angeles Daily News, among other media. The Pasadena native, winner of multiple writing awards, is a graduate of the University of Southern California and The American University in Washington, D.C. He believes the Beatles were gods and John Irving is magical. Among his Hollywood kin are his great uncle, director/producer Nat Ross, his maternal grandfather, composer/music editor/musician Lee Zahler, and his son, post-production executive/innovator Gordon Zahler.