The Viking of Van Diemen’s Land

The Stormy Life of Jorgen Jorgensen

by Frank Clune and P. R. Stephensen

Illustrations by Albert Zimmerman

Angus and Robertson, 1954, [First Edition], illustrated frontispiece, black and white illustrations in text, hardcover, dustjacket

Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, some scuffing and marking to covers, previous owners gift inscription on front endpaper, dustjacket in fair condition with closed tears, rubbing, bumping, tears, creasing and missing parts (see photographs)

“Brilliant, attractive and unscrupulous, Jorgensen’s life of headlong adventure led him sometimes into the society of such great men of his day as Goethe, Sir Joseph Banks and Lord Castlereagh, at other times into companionship with the gamblers, drunkards and felons who walked in the world’s gutters.  At the height of his career, in 1809, he was self-appointed “protector” of Iceland; not many years later, having been transported from England for theft, he lived and died wretchedly as a ticket-of-leave man in Tasmania.  By then there were few parts of the world in which he had not travelled, few degradations he had not experienced, and few deceptions he had not practiced.  His fortunes rose and fell like the swift strikes of a piston.
Frank Clune and P. R. Stephensen have put enormous research into the writing of Jorgensen’s biography, reconstructing the many-coloured patchwork of his life and successfully re-creating the period in which he lived.”

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