Hohenegger, Beatrice

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Hohenegger, Beatrice

PERSONAL:

Born in Rome, Italy. Education: Universitá La Sapienza, Laurea degree; also attended the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne University, Paris, France.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Los Angeles, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, historian, photographer, translator, editor, and curator. Curator of a traveling exhibition on the subject of tea. Worked as a creative development coordinator for Tricom, a European film production company; as a freelance writer and photographer; and as a translator and editor.

WRITINGS:

Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Beatrice Hohenegger is an author, museum curator, and expert on the history of tea. She is the guest curator of a traveling exhibition on the history and culture of tea, scheduled to open at the University of California, Los Angeles's Fowler Museum in 2009. A former creative development director for Tricom, a European film production company, Hohenegger has also worked as a writer, photographer, editor, and translator for a number of major publishers throughout the world.

In Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, Hohenegger offers not only a survey of the history of tea, but a social history of its cultural influences, aesthetics, and role in political clashes. Covering both myth and documented history, she carefully uncovers the early discovery and uses of tea, its development as a commodity, its influence in religious and artistic practices, and its place in the modern world. Hohenegger covers topics such as the Japanese tea ceremony and other spiritual connections to tea; the discovery in China of tea's healthful benefits; the association of tea with Taoism and the rise of Asian art and culture; ancient and modern agricultural methods for growing and harvesting tea; methods for brewing tea; modern varieties of tea and how they are grown and distributed; the invention of the tea bag; and more. The book's ‘real strength and appeal, you see, lies in its exhaustive and entertaining thoroughness. Yes, ‘Everything you could possibly want to know’ about tea is, in fact, contained in this interesting, new book,’ remarked Tim Davis in a BookLoons review. ‘As a whole, it is the single best international socioeconomic history I have read that has not been specifically produced for academia,’ commented a reviewer on the palatabiliTEA Web log, who also called Hohenegger's book ‘very well researched and wonderfully written.’ Library Journal critic Elizabeth Morris noted that, ‘overall, the author's light, humorous style is welcome and refreshing."