Jess Stearn (April 26, 1914 - March 27, 2002), born in Syracuse, New York, was a journalist and author of more than thirty books, nine of which were bestsellers. He was a prize-winning reporter for the New York Daily News for 17 years, and was later an Associate Editor at Newsweek1. He was the son of Rabbi David Stern.
Stearn's early works focused on outsiders and marginalized individuals, including prostitutes, drug addicts, gays, and lesbians. He subsequently developed an interest in psychic phenomena, which he dealt with in a characteristically uncritical fashion as a specialist in sensationalized, speculative nonfiction. Stearn's best-known books include two biographies of the American psychic Edgar Cayce - Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet: The Life and Work of Edgar Cayce (1965) and A Prophet in His Own Country: The Story of the Young Edgar Cayce (1974). He began to believe in Cayce's theories whilst researching the former, and even spoke at conferences of the Association for Research and Enlightenment, a group founded by Cayce. He remained interested in spirituality and the occult for the remainder of his life - he refused to make any funeral arrangements as he believed he had lived previously and would live again.2
Stearn's book Yoga, Youth and Reincarnation (1965) was a popular seller and was reprinted in 1993. Stearn practiced yoga on a daily basis and lifted weights in order to keep fit well into his 80s.
Stearn never married. He had a longtime close friendship with Arlene Francis. That may have had a connection to his earliest publicity in a nationally syndicated newspaper column, which came from Francis' television colleague Dorothy Kilgallen. Either Kilgallen or her editor at the New York Journal American placed the plug for Yoga, Youth and Reincarnation in that paper's September 15, 1965 edition immediately after an item about a Johnnie Ray concert in Las Vegas. More than ten years later, Francis discussed one of her recurring dreams with Stearn and a co-author for a book he was writing on dreams. Stearn and Francis shared interests in yoga and weightlifting.
"Jess Stearn, 87; Wrote Best Sellers on the Occult," New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/02/arts/02STEA.html?ex=1120017600&en=0b220cde5468e17f&ei=5070)