Henry Savery

Quintus Servinton: a Tale Founded Upon Incidents of Real Occurence (Dodo Press) Henry Savery

Henry Savery (1791-1842) was a convict transported to Port Arthur, Tasmania and Australia's first novelist. His attempts to earn a living were unsuccessful, a sugar-refining business being declared bankrupt in 1819 and proprietorship of the newspaper The Bristol Observer lasting only a little over two years. But his return to sugar-refining ended by his imprisonment. While in prison his behaviour was so erratic that his trial had to be postponed. In prison he wrote a series of sketches of activities and personages in the colony. These were published in the Colonial Times and, after settling a libel suit, collected in the book The Hermit of Van Diemen's Land (1829). This occurred under the pseudonym 'Simon Stukeley' as a convict could be sent to the far worse Macquarie Harbour for being published. At any event Quintus Servinton: A Tale Founded Upon Incidents of Real Occurrence was published anonymously in 1831 to reasonably good reviews from the colonial press. His authorship became a public secret and was even mentioned in a reference for his ticket of leave, which was granted in 1832.