Chip Jacobs is an American author and journalist who has written multiple books of non-fiction, including the social histories Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles (2008) and its follow-up, The People’s Republic of Chemicals (2014). His debut novel, Arroyo (2019), was a Los Angeles Times bestseller.[1]
Writing
Non-fiction
With fellow investigative journalist William J. Kelly, Jacobs wrote the social history Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles (2008), which Booklist praised as “remarkably entertaining and informative,”[2] As a follow-up, Jacobs and Kelly wrote The People’s Republic of Chemicals (2014), which Kirkus called "hard-hitting" and "[a] scathing denunciation of how America outsourced its industrial capacity to China, a package that included catastrophic pollution."[3]
His dark comedy, true crime book, The Ascension of Jerry (2012), was about a murder trial in 1979 Los Angeles.[4] He also wrote the biography Strange As It Seems: The Impossible Life of Gordon Zahler (2016), which Publishers Weekly called “exceptional” storytelling and a “peculiar page turner."[5]
Fiction
Jacobs's debut novel, Arroyo (2019), is a work of historical fiction set around construction of Pasadena’s mysterious Colorado Street Bridge in 1913. It was a Los Angeles Times[1] and Southern California Independent Booksellers Association bestseller.[6]
Booklist magazine called Arroyo a "a riveting and enjoyable look at how local myths are constructed, and a vivid depiction of a time and a place that felt full of possibilities.”[7]Library Journal said that Jacobs "handles the historical material superbly, skillfully relating the complicated and tragic story of the" Colorado Street Bridge's "construction while convincingly depicting a variety of famous historical figures.”[8]
