Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2, 1805, in the town of Odense in Denmark. He was born to a poor family. His father was a shoemaker, and his mother earned money washing other people's clothes. Although they were poor, his parents didn't want him to work from an early age and they encouraged him to develop his imagination. So, when he was fourteen, Andersen convinced them to let him go to Copenhagen, Denmark, rather than study to become a tailor. He was determined "to become famous"! Andersen lived very poor in the first years of his life in Copenhagen. He tried to become a singer, a dancer, an actor (!), but he failed. Although he had been a very poor student at school (he himself said that his school days were "the darkest and most bitter of his life") he managed to pass his University examinations in 1828 and that was when he wrote his first narrative, which was quickly followed by a collection of poems.
However, that didn't instantly bring him the fame he was aspiring to... His fairy tales were not popular at first. They started seeing success about ten years later! 156 fairytales and stories were published during his lifetime, but he also wrote other kinds of texts and some of them were published after his death, so, if we add them up, that makes 212 works in total.
Andersen died as a successful writer at the age of 70, on August 4, 1875. Apart from the works we already mentioned, other well-known stories written by him include "The Princess and the Pea", "The Tin Soldier", "The Nightingale", "The Little Match Girl"...
His stories are considered unique because he didn't write in the "traditional" way fairytales were written at the time. We don't only see "good guys" and "bad guys" in his fairytales. There is not always a "happy end". There is often melancholy in his narratives. What he wanted was to make his readers think about his characters and their stories and make his stories appeal and make sense to both children and adults.
Some interesting facts!
His stories are considered unique because he didn't write in the "traditional" way fairytales were written at the time. We don't only see "good guys" and "bad guys" in his fairytales. There is not always a "happy end". There is often melancholy in his narratives. What he wanted was to make his readers think about his characters and their stories and make his stories appeal and make sense to both children and adults.
Some interesting facts!
- Hans Christian Andersen never learnt to study successfully. He never learned how to spell or how to write in Danish!
- Andersen was not considered to be handsome. In fact, some considered him to be quite unattractive! He had a big, long nose, he was very thin and he was about 185 cm tall (which was very unusual for his time) and was a shoe size of 47!!! Some even believe that the story of The Ugly Duckling may have been derived from personal experience!
- There is an award that is named after him-The Hans Christian Andersen Award, given to the best children's books author and illustrator every two years, by her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark!
- Hans Christian Andersen never married and he didn't have any children.
- He liked watching and listening to operas!
- There is a sculpture of The Little Mermaid on the harbour of Copenhagen, Denmark!
Let's have some fun with Hans Christian Andersen! Click on the image:
