Who is Lewis Jacobs the writer of The Rise of the American Film?

Answer 1

Lewis Jacobs was a noted author, filmmaker and publisher. Initially trained as artist in the Philadelphia at the epicenter of the growing ashcan movement, his interests moved into Photography and the the emerging world of cinema. He founded Experimental Cinema one of the first publications to take a serious look at film as art spending time with noted early pioneers like Eisenstein. After gaining acclaim from "The Rise" he moved to Hollywood where one of his first jobs was advising a young radio talent Orson Welles on his first feature film Citizen Kane. He also directed the unknown Elizabeth Taylor in her screen test for her first film National Velvet. He spent many years in Hollywood as a contract studio writer but moved to New York during the blacklist period of Hollywood. In New York he authored numerous books on cinema, taught courses at multiple universities, was a jurist at many film festivals and continued writing and directing film including the film Sweet Love Bitter that became the cult classic and inspiration for Clint Eastwood's Bird. In his later years he focused on creating mixed media collage winning numerous awards in art competitions. He passed away in 1997 at the age of 92.