Jacobson, Dan(iel) (1929– )

South African-born British writer who established his literary reputation with two allegorical novellas, The Trap (1955) and A Dance in the Sun (1956). Both works explored the complex relationship between white employers and black employees in a segregated South Africa. It was a theme Jacobson explored further in novels such as The Price of Diamonds (1957), and the autobiographical The Beginners (1966). However, in later novels, including The Wonder-Worker (1973) and The God-Fearer (1992), Jacobson shifted his emphasis away from South Africa.

Other works include the novels The Rape of Tamar (1970) and All for Love (2005); the short-story collections Beggar My Neighbour (1964) and Inklings: Selected Stories (1973); the autobiographical works Time and Again: Autobiographies (1985) and Heshel's Kingdom (1998); the commentary The Electronic Elephant: A Southern African Journey (1994); and Adult Pleasures: Essays on Writers and Readers (1988).

Jacobson was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, the son of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, and educated at Witwatersrand University. In 1954 Jacobson moved from South Africa to settle in London, England, where he taught at University College London from 1976 to 1994.