Lied Jonas Marius (1 results)
More imagesLanguage: Norwegian
Published by H. Aschehoug & Co. (W. Nygaard), Oslo , 1928. 1928
Seller: Antiquariat Stefan Wulf, Berlin, , GermanyAntiquariat Stefan Wulf
Contact seller5-star sellerCondition: Used
US$ 2,600.32
US$ 28.69 shippingShips from Germany to U.S.A.Quantity: 1 available
Large octavo. Blue full morocco with elaborate gilding to inner and outer boards, spine and all edges. Marbled endpapers in blue and multi-colored capital threads to head and foot of bookblock. Signed by Zaehnsdorf, London, and decorated with Jonas Lied's personal supralibro on front board and his book plate on inner front board… (both bearing the identical coat of arms). Minor rubbing to end of spines only, else in perfect shape. 3 ff., 162 pp., with a frontispiece and 58 illustrations on (unnumbered) plates in b/w, one inset-map along the text and 2 further maps on a fold-out sheet. The front free endpaper bearing the manuscript dedication from Olof Sverdrup's hands, page 20 with an interesting manuscript annotation in pencil, signed by Lied (see commentary below, please)., a well preserved copy. A widely travelled book throwing light on the relationship of two widely travelled prominent figures of Arctic and North-East-Polar-Exploration including Otto Sverdrup, one of the Norwegian polar explorers' triumvirate, that else only included Fritjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. The story behind this particular copy of the memories of Otto Sverdrup, the captain of Nansen's famous ship Fram", goes as this : At the age of almost 75 years, Sverdrup published some accounts of his travels in the polar north. This one at hands, deals with his travels along the northern coast of Siberia all the way to Alaska. Sverdrup sent a copy of it with a short manuscript dedication to Jonas Lied - at that time based in London - as a rememberance of an event, that had bound these two people together forever, which namely was when one of Jonas Lied's vessels in the Northern Seas saved Sverdrup, whose ship had run aground, from an unvoluntary overwinter in the polar drift ice. Jonas Lied apparently higly estimated this gesture from the much elder polar explorer and had the London book bindery Zaehnsdorf, who frequently worked for him, to bring the book in his personal binding, i.e. with his coat of arms as a supralibro on the front board. While Otto Sverdrup was one of the most prominent figures in the history of Artic exploration, Jonas Lied certainly is lesser known to the general public, but his life as an extremely skilled entrepreneur, as an illustrious person in world politics and diplomacy, as a wanderer between the worlds of East and West, and last but not least as a connoisseur in and supporter of the arts would all together certainly serve as the perfect blueprint for a blockbusting Hollywood-biopic : Lied was the founder of the Norwegian Siberian Company, which aim was to explore the Far East of Siberia through the rivers Ob and Yenisey, as there still was a lack of accessibility of these regions through other means like railway networks. For that purpose Lied gained Russian citizenship, which was neccessary to become a shareholder of Russia-based companies. Lied was extremely successful in this and it is said, that at the peak he ran over 400 marine vessels serving the route from Europe to Inner Siberia through the Russian rivers mouthing in the Polar Seas. One of the main tasks of his fleet therefore was to deliver construction material, cement and ironware, for the expansion of the Transsiberian railway network (which was established first about a decade before) in Inner Siberia. It is no exaggeration at all to call Lied a daredevil in that respect as a huge part of his fleet consisted of ships that actually were not designed to navigate other than coastal waters and certainly not to sail the rough Polar Seas. Anyway, the employment of coastal steamers, which silhouette on the horizon is relatively flat, reminding of military vessels used to defeat submarines led to another rather curious encounter between Sverdrup and Lied shortly after the outbreak of WWI. This was when Sverdrup on his way north was informed about a group of ships, that were identified as German destroyers (Torpedojäger"). Upon that notification he left his route and seek.
