Johan Sørensen

Johan Jean Christian Sørensen (21 November 1830 – 1 October 1918) was a Norwegian businessperson and book publisher who had been at one time Danish consul to Spain.

He was born in Drøbak as a son of shipmaster, merchant and lighthouse manager Abraham Georg Sørensen and Nancy Samuelson. He was a brother of Niels Georg Sørensen. The family moved to Lindesnes in 1842. He worked at sea from the age of thirteen, but in 1844 he moved with the family to Hustadvika when his father became manager of Kvitholmen Lighthouse. At the age of seventeen Sørensen became a shop clerk in Kristiansund. In 1868 he married German citizen Anna Henriette Dick (1843–1921).

Sørensen moved to Spain in 1857 to trade dried and salted cod. His company was located in Santander, and soon expanded to include timber trade. In 1862 a branch office was opened in Bilbao, where a mechanical workshop was also established. From 1867 to 1871 he was the consul for Denmark in Spain. He gradually relocated his business to Sweden, where he established a sawmill with his brothers inn 1874, Säfveåns AB in Göteborg. In 1880 he moved back to Norway, residing at the property Fagerstrand near Høvik. His interests in the companies in Spain and Sweden was gradually discontinued, but the companies were still run by others.

Sørensen had received education through private tutoring in Kristiansund, where he also used the library at his workplace. He became a part of the liberal movement, and became active in culture and society in the 1880s. In 1884 he replaced Olaf Olsen as a partner of Olaf Huseby in the book store and publishing house Huseby & Co. Among their publications were books such as Albertine by Christian Krohg, which was confiscated by the police. They also published the periodical Nyt Tidsskrift, edited by Olaf Skavlan and Ernst Sars.

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