Axel Jensen

Axel Buchardt Jensen (12 February 1932 – 13 February 2003) was a Norwegian author. From 1957 until 2002, he published both fiction and non-fiction texts which include novels, poems, essays, a biography, and manuscripts for cartoons and animated films. Jensen was born on 12 February 1932 in Trondheim to Dagny Teodora (née Buchardt, 1908- 2000) and Finn Reidar Jensen (1901-1967). His father owned a sausage factory, Axel Jensens fabrikker, in Oslo. His parents later divorced. His father's second marriage produced two sons.Jensen completed three years of high school but only lasted a couple of days at university as he didn't like the quiet polite lectures and so gave it up. He then undertook a number of labouring jobs, while writing in his spare time. He managed to get some stories published in the Aftenposten newspaper, but most of the short stories he submitted to journals and magazines were rejected.

In the early 1950s he went travelling in Northern Africa, during which time he met John Starr Cooke in the Sahara and went on to become a friend.