Jacob Riis

It was at the age of sixteen that he first fell in love with Elisabeth Gj�rtz, the 12-year-old adopted daughter of the owner of the company for which he worked as an apprentice carpenter.

He proposed her several times during his life, but each time she rejected his offer. Finally, it was after the death of her fianc�e that she accepted his offer for marriage.

The two married in Denmark and later moved to New York. They were blessed with three children, a daughter, Clara C. Riis and two sons John Riis and Edward V. Riis.

Jacob Riis was born to Niels Edward Riis and Carolina Riis in Ribe Denmark. He was the third of the fifteen children born to the couple. While his father was a school teacher and an occasional writer, his mother worked as a homemaker.

For young Riis, his father was an influential figure who helped the former to read, learn and improve English. He spent much of his early years refining his English by reading novels by Charles Dicken and James Fenimore Cooper.

Much against his father’s wishes of taking up a literary career, he longed to become a carpenter. By the time he turned sixteen, he started working as an intern in Carpentry Company. He moved to Copenhagen to complete his training.

Returning to Ribe in 1868, he was disheartened to see the lack of opportunity for work and hence migrated to United States in 1870, with a letter of reference to the Danish Consul, Mr Goodall.

It was only on the fifth day upon his arrival that he found work as a carpenter at Brady’s Bend Iron Works on the Allegheny River above Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, the world scenario kept changing as France declared war against Germany.

With a view to contribute to the war, he moved to New York and enlisted himself at the French consulate. However, since America had no plans of sending a volunteer army, he dropped the idea.

He briefly worked as a farmer on a farm in Mount Vernon New York before returning to New York City wherein he learned about the recruiting of soldiers for the war. However, due to his poor state of physical self, he was not offered the work.

‘How The Other Half Lives’ is a book penned by this Danish American social reformer who highlighted the impoverished living condition of the poor in New York City through a write-up and pictorial description.