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| Hans Christian Andersen |
Hans Christian Andersen (2 April 1805-4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories, called Eventyr in Danish, express themes that transcend age and nationality.
Andersen's fairy tales, of which no less than 3381 works have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. His stories have inspired ballets, plays, and animated and live-action films.
More information: Biography.com
Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark on 2 April 1805. He was an only child. Andersen's father, also Hans, considered himself related to nobility. A persistent speculation suggests that Andersen was an illegitimate son of King Christian VIII, but this notion has been challenged.
Andersen's father, who had received an elementary school education, introduced Andersen to literature, reading to him Arabian Nights. Andersen was sent to a local school for poor children where he received a basic education and had to support himself, working as an apprentice to a weaver and, later, to a tailor.
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| Hans Christian Andersen |
At fourteen, he moved to Copenhagen to seek employment as an actor. Having an excellent soprano voice, he was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but his voice soon changed. A colleague at the theatre told him that he considered Andersen a poet. Taking the suggestion seriously, Andersen began to focus on writing.
A very early fairy tale by Andersen, Tællelyset, The Tallow Candle, was discovered in a Danish archive in October 2012. The story, written in the 1820s, was about a candle that did not feel appreciated. It was written while Andersen was still in school and dedicated to a benefactor in whose family's possession it remained until it turned up among other family papers in a local archive.
In 1829, Andersen enjoyed considerable success with the short story A Journey on Foot from Holmen's Canal to the East Point of Amager. At Jura, near Le Locle, Switzerland, Andersen wrote the story Agnete and the Merman. He spent an evening in the Italian seaside village of Sestri Levante the same year, inspiring the title of The Bay of Fables. In October 1834, he arrived in Rome. Andersen's travels in Italy were to be reflected in his first novel, a fictionalized autobiography titled Improvisatoren, published in 1835 to instant acclaim.
More information: Hans Christian Andersen-The Official Webside
In 1835, Andersen published the first two installments of his Fairy Tales. More stories, completing the first volume, were published in 1837. The collection comprises nine tales, including The Tinderbox, The Princess and the Pea, Thumbelina, The Little Mermaid, and The Emperor's New Clothes. The quality of these stories was not immediately recognized, and they sold poorly. At the same time, Andersen enjoyed more success with two novels, O.T. (1836) and Only a Fiddler (1837); the latter work was reviewed by a young Søren Kierkegaard.
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| Hans Christian Andersen |
After a visit to Sweden in 1837, Andersen became inspired by Scandinavism and committed himself to writing a poem that would convey the relatedness of Swedes, Danes, and Norwegians. In July 1839, during a visit to the island of Funen, Andersen wrote the text of his poem Jeg er en Skandinav, I am a Scandinavian, to capture the beauty of the Nordic spirit, the way the three sister nations have gradually grown together as part of a Scandinavian national anthem. Composer Otto Lindblad set the poem to music, and the composition was published in January 1840. Its popularity peaked in 1845, after which it was seldom sung.
Andersen returned to the fairy tale genre in 1838 with another collection, Fairy Tales Told for Children, which consists of The Daisy, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, and The Wild Swans.
In June 1847, Andersen paid his first visit to England and enjoyed a triumphal social success during the summer. The Countess of Blessington invited him to her parties where intellectual people could meet, and it was at one such party that he met Charles Dickens for the first time. They shook hands and walked to the veranda, about which Andersen wrote in his diary: We had come to the veranda, I was so happy to see and speak to England's now living writer, whom I love the most.
The two authors respected each other's work and shared something important in common as writers: depictions of the poor and the underclass, who often had difficult lives affected both by the Industrial Revolution and by abject poverty. In the Victorian era there was a growing sympathy for children and an idealisation of the innocence of childhood.
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| Andersen' statue in Central Park, NYC |
Ten years later, Andersen visited England again, primarily to meet Dickens. He extended a brief visit to Dickens' home at Gads Hill Place into a five-week stay, to the distress of Dickens' family. After Andersen was told to leave, Dickens gradually stopped all correspondence between them, to the great disappointment and confusion of Andersen, who had quite enjoyed the visit and never understood why his letters went unanswered.
In the spring of 1872, Andersen fell out of his bed and was severely hurt; he never fully recovered from the resultant injuries. Soon afterward, he started to show signs of liver cancer.
He died on 4 August 1875, in a house called Rolighed, near Copenhagen, the home of his close friends, the banker Moritz Melchior and his wife. Shortly before his death, Andersen had consulted a composer about the music for his funeral, saying: Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with little steps.
Just living is not enough...
One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
Hans Christian Andersen
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