It
is the birthday of Danish author and poet Hans Christian Andersen, born
in 1805 in the town of Odense. He went to work at a young age,
supporting himself first as a weaver's apprentice, then a tailor's. At
14, he moved to Copenhagen, hoping to become an actor, and began writing
when a theater colleague called him a poet. He published his first
story, "The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave," in 1822. He eventually went to
college, but he was a mediocre student.
He considered himself a novelist and playwright, and he wrote travelogues, beginning with the conventional framework of description and documentary account but building something unique with his inclusion of musings on larger themes like the role of the author and the nature of fiction. But it's for his three collections of fairy tales that he is best known. Since he never mastered writing in the formal Danish style in school, he wrote in the everyday language of the common Danish people, and he refused to talk down to children or shelter them from the dark and scary. Later translators cut out some of the scarier parts and gave the tales happy endings, and so we often think of them as lighthearted and innocent, but that was not really the case. His fairy tales inspired Charles Dickens, who became his friend, and also Oscar Wilde.
He considered himself a novelist and playwright, and he wrote travelogues, beginning with the conventional framework of description and documentary account but building something unique with his inclusion of musings on larger themes like the role of the author and the nature of fiction. But it's for his three collections of fairy tales that he is best known. Since he never mastered writing in the formal Danish style in school, he wrote in the everyday language of the common Danish people, and he refused to talk down to children or shelter them from the dark and scary. Later translators cut out some of the scarier parts and gave the tales happy endings, and so we often think of them as lighthearted and innocent, but that was not really the case. His fairy tales inspired Charles Dickens, who became his friend, and also Oscar Wilde.
His personal life was a succession of unrequited longings for women,
including the singer Jenny Lind, and occasionally men. He never married,
but was well aware of how beloved he was by the world's children. Not
long before his death, he was conferring with the composer of his
funeral march, and told him, "Most of the people who walk after me will
be children, so make the beat keep time with little steps."
In Andersen's honor, his birthday was declared International Children's Book Day, a day to promote children's literature and foster a love of reading in the world's youth.
He looked nothing at all like Danny Kaye.
Here you can see the evil Disney wrought:
In Andersen's honor, his birthday was declared International Children's Book Day, a day to promote children's literature and foster a love of reading in the world's youth.
He looked nothing at all like Danny Kaye.
Here you can see the evil Disney wrought:
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