Craig Munro (257-258) reports that Stephesen 'lavished so much time and energy on the Jorgensen biography that it grew to a massive 400,000 words before being cut down to a more manageable 250,000...
Clune himself carried this out at the instigation of Angus & Robertson who would not publish it otherwise. This reversal of roles deeply offended Stephensen who was not even shown the revised version until proof stage. His detailed account of Jorgensen's early life, charting the Dane's psychological and intellectual development, was erased by the impatient Clune who considered such exposition secondary to the tale of Jorgensen's picaresque adventures...To
E. Morris Miller, Stephensen poured out more of his frustration: 'When I saw the galley proofs, I was extremely dejected at the mutilation of a work which was conceived as the most ambitious attempt at biography ever made in Australia.' Stephensen was paid one thousand pounds by Clune to write the Jorgensen biography. (Craig Munro
Wild Man of letters : the Story of P. R. Stephensen (1984)).
