Jørgen Frantz Jacobsen (1900-1938)

Author and journalist. Jørgen Frantz Jacobsen penned a wealth of political articles on Faroese society. However, he is best known his the widely translated historical novel Barbara (1939).

Jørgen Frantz Jacobsen portrayed by Holger Damgaard. Source: The Royal Danish Library

Jørgen Frantz Jacobsen passed away in the early hours of 21st March 1938 at Vejlefjord Sanatorium. He had been hospitalised to undergo lung surgery the previous summer.

Though he was afflicted by tuberculosis from an early age, he was a prolific writer. His first political article was about the Faroese independence movement and was featured in the major Danish paper Politiken in 1925. He went on to produce several articles on Faroese society. His first book Færøerne og Danmark, (The Faroe Islands and Denmark), was published in 1927. It would be followed by Færøerne, natur og folk, (The Faroe Islands nature and people) in 1936.

Jørgen Frantz completed his master’s degree with a major in history and French as a minor in 1932, and was hired on graduating as a staff journalist at Politiken. The young journalist had a keen interest in the Nordic countries and he travelled for the paper as a correspondent. Rikard Long wrote in his eulogy: ‘With his experience of Faroese-Danish politics, Jørgen-Frantz held a key to understanding Nordic issues, and he used it keenly.’

By 1934 faltering health forced Jørgen-Frantz to resign from some of his duties as a Politiken journalist. He also had to relinquish the task of writing the history of the Royal Danish Monopoly Trading Company in Greenland, which he had been commissioned to write by the Danish Institute of History and Economics.

In his last years he wrote the historical novel Barbara, which was published posthumously a year after his passing. The novel proved very popular. In September 1939 a run of 2000 books printed in Denmark sold out immediately. It prompted Danish author and critic Tom Kristensen to write in Politiken: ‘When Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen died in 1937 (sic), little did we know that we had lost one of our great Poets. With this one tome, we now know.’

Jørgen Frantz was an honorary member of the Faroese Student Association in Copenhagen.

Source:

Degn, Anton; Heinesen, William: Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen in Dansk Biografisk Leksikon at lex.dk. Last visited on 30^th October 2024 at https://biografiskleksikon.lex.dk/J%C3%B8rgen-Frantz_Jacobsen

Jørgen-Frants Jacobsen deyður. In: Føroyatíðindi 26^th March 1938. Tvøroyri.

Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen F. 29. nov. 1900. D. 24 mars. 1938. In: Dagblaðið 26^th March 1938. Tórshavn.

Kristensen, Tom. Et Mesterværk skrevet paa Dødslejet. In: Sosialurin 30^th September 1939. Tórshavn.

Long, Rikard. Jørgen-Frantz Jacobsen 29. november 1900 – 24 mars. 1938. In: Tingakrossur 26^th March 1938. Tórshavn.