The Usurper – Jorgen Jorgenson and His Turbulent Life in Iceland and Van Diemen's Land 1780–1841 | Dan Sprod | 2001 [NEW – HCDJ]

Dan Sprod's biography of Jorgen Jorgenson — one of the most extraordinary figures in Tasmanian history, and arguably in world history of the period.

Born in Copenhagen in 1780, Jorgenson went to sea as a teenager, worked as a cabin boy on British ships, served in the Napoleonic Wars, and in 1809 led what amounted to a coup d'état in Iceland — briefly overthrowing Danish rule and declaring himself Protector of Iceland, issuing proclamations and flying his own flag before being removed by the British Navy after two months. He spent years in and out of English prisons and debtor's gaols, was eventually transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1826, and spent the rest of his life there as a convict, explorer, writer and police constable, dying in Hobart in 1841.

The Usurper is the definitive biography — 718 pages, fully indexed, including the full text of Jorgenson's own account of the Iceland 'revolution.' Dan Sprod spent decades researching Jorgenson and this is the authoritative work on a man whose life defied easy categorisation.

BOOK DETAILS

• Substantial hardcover book with dust jacket.
• 718 pages, indexed.
• Published 2001 by Blubber Head Press, Hobart. 
• New.

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