Hans Christian Andersen

The Danish author wrote more than 150 fairy tales, with stories such as ‘The Snow Queen’, ‘The Ugly Duckling’ and ‘The Emperor's New Clothes’ now embedded in popular consciousness and many having been adapted for film....

Hans Christian Andersen was born in the Danish city of Odense in 1805 to impoverished parents. He trained as an actor before enrolling at the University of Copenhagen in 1828, and self-published his first story the following year. After a false start as a playwright, a small grant from the King of Denmark enabled him to travel to Switzerland and Italy, inspiring his semi-autobiographical novel The Improvisatore .

Fairy Tales Told for Children: First Collection was published in instalments between 1835 and 1837. Some, including ‘The Princess and the Pea’, were based on folk tales he had heard as a child, while ‘Thumbelina’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ were his own invention. He went on to publish further collections of tales in 1843, 1847 and 1852, along with several travelogues, and by 1862 was receiving commissions from American magazines – several of his later tales, including ‘The Flea and the Professor’, appeared in US publications such as Scribner’s Monthly before they came out in Denmark.

Andersen’s early experience of poverty meant that even after achieving worldwide fame he felt like an outsider, and his sympathy for the underdog, along with his informal, conversational style of writing, gave his stories much of their appeal. This was something he shared with Charles Dickens, and when the two first met in England in 1847, they hit it off. Andersen’s return visit ten years later was less successful: he so outstayed his welcome at Dickens’ home that he was asked to leave.

Hans Christian Andersen died of liver cancer at his home in Copenhagen in 1875, aged 70. He was commemorated by a statue in the King’s Garden, Copenhagen in 1880, and in 1913 by the bronze figure of the Little Mermaid in the city harbour. His tales have now been translated into more than 125 languages.