AustLit

Edgar Penzig grew up in Revesby and attended Bankstown High School. He had an enthusiasm for motor bikes and was an amateur actor and director. Penzig's first book, the poetry collection Under Five Stars, was published in 1964. Penzig's interest in colonial life led him to assist in the founding of several re-enactment societies in New South Wales.

Penzig wrote more than twenty books on Australian bushrangers and colonial history as well as entries in the Australian Dictionary of Biography for bushrangers Frank Gardiner, John Gilbert and Ben Hall (qq.v.). He also wrote several plays, historical articles for English and Australian magazines and a regular column in a motor-sport magazine. His songs were recorded (My Life,1975), his paintings exhibited, and he appeared on television and radio. In 1980, Penzig was made a Fellow of the Australian Institute of History and Arts.