Danish writer, famous for his fairy tales, which were not meant merely for children but for adults as well. Andersen used frequently colloquial style that disguises the sophisticated moral teachings of his tales. Before achieving success as a playwright and novelist, Andersen was trained as singer and actor. Many of Andersen's fairy tales depict characters who gain happiness in life after suffering and conflicts. 'The Ugly Duckling' and 'The Little Mermaid' are Andersen's most intimate works.

"He now felt glad at having suffered sorrow and trouble, because it enabled him to enjoy so much better all the pleasure and happiness around him; for the great swans swam round the new-comer, and stroked his neck with their beaks, as a welcome." (from 'The Ugly Duckling')

Hans Christian Andersen was born in the slums of Odense, where the family lived in a one-room house. His father, Hans Andersen, was a poor shoemaker and literate, who believed he was of aristocratic origin. Andersen's mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, worked as washerwoman. Although she was uneducated and superstitious, she opened for his son the world of folklore. Later Andersen depicted her in his novels and in the story 'Hun duede ikke'. Anne Marie declined into alcoholism and died in 1833 in a charitable old people's home. Andersen's half-sister Karen Marie may have worked as a prostitute for a time; she contacted her famous brother only a few times before dying in 1846.

Andersen received little education. As a child he was highly emotional, suffering all kinds of fears and humiliations because of his tallness and effeminate interests. Andersen's hysterical attacks of cramps were falsely diagnosed as epileptic fits. Several biographers have suggested that he may have been a victim of sexual abuse as a child.

Encouraged by his parents Andersen composed his own fairy tales and arrange puppet theatre shows. His father loved literatuire and took Andersen often to the playhouse. "My father gratified me in all my wishes," wrote Andersen in The True Story of My Life (1846). "I possessed his whole heart; he lived for me. On Sundays, he made me perspective glasses, theatres, and pictures which could be changed; he read to me from Holberg's plays and the Arabian Tales; it was only in such moments as these that I can remember to have seen him really cheerful, for he never felt himself happy in his life and as a handicrafts-man."

In 1816 his father died and Andersen was forced to go to work. He helped his grandmother at a hospital for the insane, and for a short time apprenticed to a weaver and tailor. He also worked at a tobacco factory, where his trousers were pulled down when other workers suspected that he was a girl.

At the age of 14 Andersen moved to Copenhagen to start a career as a singer, dancer or an actor – he had a beautiful soprano voice. The following three years were full of hardships although he found supporters who paved his way to the theatre. Andersen succeeded in becoming associated with the Royal Theater, but he had to leave it when his voice began to change. When he was casually referred as a poet it changed his plans: "It went through me, body and soul, and tears filled my eyes. I knew that, from this very moment, my mind was awake to writing and poetry." He then began to write plays, all of which were rejected.

In 1822 Jonas Collin, one of the directors of the Royal Theatre and an influential government official, gave Andersen a grant to enter the grammar school at Slagelse. He lived in the home of the school headmaster Meisling, who was annoyed at the oversensitive student and tried to harden his character. Other pupils were much younger, 11-year-olds, among whom six years older Andersen was definitely overgrown. Due to his appearance – he had a long nose and close-set eyes – he drew also unvanted attention. Even his walk was considered unmanly; one contemporary described it as "a hopping along almost like a monkey". The headmaster referred to him as an "overgrown lump".

Collin arranged in 1827 a private tuition for Andersen. He gained admission to Copenhagen University, where he completed his education. In 1828 Andersen wrote a travel sketch, Fodreise fra Holmens Kanal Til Østpynten af Amager, a fantastic tale in the style of the German Romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Children's and Household Tales had appeared between 1812 and 1815, but they were based on original folktales.

Andersen's poem 'The Dying Child,' was published in a Copenhagen journal and the Royal Theatre produced in 1829 his musical drama. Phantasier og Skizzer, a collection of poems, was born when Andersen fell in love with Riborg Voigt, who was secretly engaged to the local chemist's son. "She has a lovely, pious face, quite child-like, but her eyes looker clever and thoughtful, they were brown and very vivid," Andersen remembered in The Book of My Life. Riborg married the chemists's son, Poul Bøving, in 1831. A leather pouch containing a letter from Riborg was found round Andersen's neck when he died. Also Edvard, Jonas Collin's son, and Henrik Stempe in the 1840s were for Andersen other objects of unfulfilled dreams.

"I do wish that I were dead," Andersen said to one of his friends in 1831, expressing not his feelings about his failed love for Riborg but also echoing the melancholy of Goethe's Werther from The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774). Andersen never met Goethe, who was still alive when Andersen made his first journey to Germany. The visit inspired the first of his many travel sketches.

From 1831 onwards Andersen travelled widely in Europe, and remained a passionate traveller all his life.He wrote sketches about Sweden, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and the Middle East. During his journeys Andersen met in Paris among others Victor Hugo, Heinrich Heine, Balzac, and Alexandre Dumas. A Poet's Day Dreams (1853) Andersen dedicated to Charles Dickens, whom he met in the summer of 1857. And in Rome he met the young Norwegian writer Björnson. Andersen lacked sufficient command of English and after staying with Dickens at Gad's Hill, his host stuck a brief note in the guest room saying: "Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks which seemed to the family AGES!"

As a novelist Andersen made his breakthrough with The Improvisatore (1835), using Italy as the setting. The story was autobiographical and depicted a poor boy's integration into society, an Ugly Duckling theme of self-discovery in which Andersen returned in several of his works. The book gained international success and during his life it remained the most widely read of all his works. E.B. Browning wrote warmly to her future husband of the novel and her last poem was written for Andersen in 1861, shortly before her death. Only a Fiddler (1837), Andersen's novel, was attacked by the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in his book Af En endnu Levendes Papirer (1838, From the Papers of a Person Still Alive, Published Against his Will). "The joyless struggle that is Andersen's in real life now repeats itself in his writing," he wrote. Kierkegaard, the 'Ugly Duckling' of Danish philosophy, used a number of pseudonyms, none of whom 'agreed' with one another. A little later, Andersen took his revenge with the play En Comedie i det Grønne (1840), which included an unpractical philosopher.

Andersen's fame rests on his Fairy Tales and Stories, written between 1835 and 1872. Tales, Told for Children, appeared in a small, cheap booklet in 1835. In this and following early collections, which were published in every Christmas, Andersen returned to the stories which he had heard as a child, but gradually he started to create his own tales. The third volume, published in 1837, contained 'The Little Mermaid' and 'The Emperor's New Clothes.' Among Andersen's other best known tales are 'Little Ugly Duckling,' 'The Tinderbox,' 'Little Claus and Big Claus,' 'Princess and the Pea,' 'The Snow Queen,' The Nightingale,' and 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier.' With these collections, inspired by the great tradition of the Arabian Nights on the other hand, and Household Tales, collected by the brothers Grimm, Andersen became known as the father of the modern fairytale. Moreover, Andersen's works were original. Only 12 of his 156 know fairy stories drew on folktales.

Andersen broke new ground in both style and content, and employed the idioms and constructions of spoken language in a way that was new in Danish writing. When fairy tales at his time were didactic, he brought into them ambiguity. Children and misfits often speak truth; they serve as Andersen's mouthpiece in moral questions: ""But he has nothing on at all," said a little child at last. "Good heavens! listen to the voice of an innocent child," said the father, and one whispered to the other what the child had said. "But he has nothing on at all," cried at last the whole people. That made a deep impression upon the emperor, for it seemed to him that they were right; but he thought to himself, "Now I must bear up to the end." And the chamberlains walked with still greater dignity, as if they carried train which did not exist." (from 'The Emperor's New Suit,' 1837) Ugliness of the hero or heroine often conceals great beauty, which is revealed after misfortunes. In psychoanalysis this kind of figure is sometimes interpreted as a symbol of the inner self of soul, which has to be released from its prison.

Andersen's identification with the unfortunate and outcast made his tales very compelling. Some of Andersen's tales revealed an optimistic belief in the triumph of the good, among them 'The Snow Queen' and 'Little Ugly Duckling', and some ended unhappily, like 'The Little Match Girl.' In 'The Little Mermaid' the author expressed a longing for ordinary life - he never had such. In the story the youngest of six mermaid precesses longs after the land above the sea, but the fulfillment of the dream causes her much pain. "She knew this was the last evening she would ever see him for whom she had forsaken her kindred and her home, given up her lovely voice, and daily suffered unending torment – and he had no idea of it. This was the last night she would breathe the same air as he, or look upon the deep sea and the starry blue sky; an everlasting night without thoughts or dreams waited her, for she had no soul and could not gain one." (translated by L.W. Kingsland)

Andersen's tales were translated throughout Europe, with four editions appearing in the UK in 1846 alone. His works influenced among others Charles Dickens ('A Christmas Carol in Prose,' 'The Chimes,' 'The Cricket on the Hearth.' 'The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain'), Willam Thackeray and Oscar Wilde ('The Happy Prince,' 'The Nightingale and the Rose,' 'The Fisherman and His Soul'), C.S. Lewis, Isak Dinesen, P.O. Enquist, whose play, Rainsnakes, was about Andersen, Cees Noteboom, and a number of other writers. Elias Bredsdorff has complained in his book Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of His Life and Work (1975), that Andersen's tales have been bowdlerized and sweetened by Victorian British translators.

Andersen's last unfilled love was the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, whom he met first time in 1840. Jenny was the illegitimate daughter of a schoolmistress. According to her own words, she was at the age of nine "a small, ugly, broad-nosed, shy, gauche, altogether undergrown girl". At eighteen, she had made her breakthrough as a singer with her powerful soprano. 'The Ugly Duckling' become Jenny's favorite among Andersen's stories. However, 'Andersen's 'The Nightingale' is considered a tribute to Jenny, or "the Swedish Nightingale" as she was called. "Farewell," she wrote him in 1844, "God bless and protect my brother is the sincere wish of his affectionate sister, Jenny." Andersen never married.

Between the years 1840 and 1857 Andersen made journeys throughout Europa, Asia Minor, and Africa, recording his impressions and adventures in a number of travel books. He wrote and rewrote his memoirs, The Fairy Tale of My Life, but the standard edition is generally considered the 1855 edition.

During his travels abroad, Andersen was able to be more relaxed and take more liberties than in Copenhagen, where everybody knew him. At the age of sixty-two Andersen went to Paris, where he visited a brothel – it was not his first visit or last. "Then went suddenly up into a meat market – one of them was covered with powder; a second, common; a third, quite the lady. I talked with her, paid twelve francs and left, without having sinned in deed, though I dare say I did in my thoughts. She asked me to come back, said I was indeed very innocent for a man." (from Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller by Jackie Wullschlager, 2001) Andersen died in his home in Rolighed on August 4, 1875. Edvard Collin and his wife were later buried with Andersen. However, their family members moved the Collins' bodies after some years to the family plot in another cemetery.

For further reading: Hans Christian Andersen by Rumer Godden (1955); Hans Christian Andersen: The Story of His Life and Work 1805-75 by Elias Brendsdorff (1975); H.C. Andersen by Erling Nielsen (1983); The Kiss of the Snow Queen: Hans Christian Andersen and Man's Redemption by Woman by Wolfgang Lederer (1986); The Amazing Paper Cuttings of Hans Christian Andersen by Beth Wagner Brust (1994); Hans Christian Andersen: Danish Writer And Citizen Of The World by Sven Hakon Rossel (1996); Hans Christian Andersen: The Life of a Storyteller by Jackie Wullschlager (2001); Hans Christian Andersen: A Biography by R. Nisbet Bain (2002) - Suom.: Kaikki Andersenin tunnetuimmat sadut ovat ilmestyneet suomeksi. Suomentajista mainittakoon mm. kirjailija Maila Talvio. See also: Robert Louis Stevenson

Selected works:

• Ungdoms-Forsøg , 1822
• Kjærlighed paa Nicolai Taarn eller Hvad siger Parterret, 1829 (play)
• Digte, 1829, 1832, 1850
• Fodreise fra Holmens Canal til Østpynten af Amager i Aarene 1828 og 1829, 1829 (A Walk from Homen's Canal to the East Point of Island of Amager in the Years 1828 and 1829)
• Phantasier og Skizzer, 1831
• Skibet, 1831 (from La Quarantaine, a play by Scribe and Mazere)
• Skyggebilleder af en Reise til Harzen, 1832
  - Rambles in the Romantic Regions of the Harz Mountains (translated by Charles Beckwith, 1848)
• Bruden fra Lammermoor, 1832 (play, music by Ivar Bredal, from the novel The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott)
• Ravnen eller Broderprøven, 1832  (play, music by J.P.E. Hartmann, from a play by Gozzi)
• Aarets tolv Maaneder, 1833
• Samlede Digte , 1833
• Vignetter til danske Digtere, 1833
• Agnete og Havmanden, 1834 (play, music by Nils V. Gade)
• Improvisatoren, 1835
  - The Improviser; or, Life in Italy (translated by Mary Howitt, 1845)
• Eventyr, fortalte for Børn, 1835-42 (6 vols.; Fairy Tales, Told for Children)
• O.T., 1836
  - O.T.; or, Life in Denmark (with Only a Fiddler, translated by Mary Howitt, 1845)
• Sangene i Festen paa Kenilworth, 1836 (play, music by C.E.F. Weyse, from the novel Kenilworth by Walter Scott)
• Skilles og mødes, 1836 (play)
• Kun en Spillemand, 1837
  - Only a Fiddler (with O.T., translated by Mary Howitt, 1845)
• Eventyr, fortalte for Børn, 1837
• Billedbog uden Billeder, 1838-40 (2 vols.)
  - A Picture-book Without Pictures: And Other Stories (tr. 1852) / Tales the Moon Can Tell (translated from the Danish by R.P. Keigwin, 1955)
  - Kuvaton kuvakirja (suom. Larin-Kyösti, 1915)
• Eventyr og Historier, 1839
• Den Usynlige paa Sprogø, 1839 (play)
• Mulatten, 1840 (play, from a story by Fanny Reybaud)
• Mikkels Kjærligheds Historier i Paris, 1840 (play)
• Maurerpigen, 1840 (play)
• En Komedie i det grønne, 1840 (from a play by Dorvigny)
• En Nat i Roskilde, 1840
  - Yökausi Lahdella (suom. Paavo Cajander, 1870)
• En Digters Bazar, 1842
  - A Poet's Bazaar (translated by Charles Beckwith, 1846)
• Fuglen i Pæretræet, 1842 (play)
• Nye Eventyr, 1843-47 (4 vols.)
• Lykkens Blomst, 1844
• Kongen drømmer, 1844 (play)
• Dronningen paa 16 Aar, 1844 (from a play by Bayard)
• Den nye Barselstue, 1845
• Nye Eventyr, 1844-45
• Herr Rasmussen. Lystspil i 2 Akter , 1846 (play, edited by E. Agerholm, 1913)
• Liden Kirsten, 1847 (play, prod. 1846)
• Lykkens Blomst, 1847 (play, music by J.P.E. Hartmann, prod. 1845)
• Das Märchen meines Lebens ohne Dichtung / Sämtliche Werke I, 1847
  - The True Story of my Life (tr. 1847; as Mit eget Eventyr uden Digtning, edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen, 1942)
• Ahasverus, 1847
• Kunstens Dannevirke, 1848 (play)
• De to Baronesser, 1848
  - The Two Baronesses (translated by Charles Beckwith, 1848)
  - Kaksi paronitarta (suom. Aukusti Simojoki, 1969)
• Brylluppet ved Como-Søen, 1849 (play, music by Franz Gläser, from a novel by Manzoni)
• Meer end Perler og Guld, 1849 (from a play by Ferdinand Raimund)
• Ole Lukøie, 1850 (play)
• En Nat i Roeskilde, 1850 (from a play by C. Warin and C.E. Lefevre, prod. 1848)
• Den nye Barselstue, 1850 (play, prod. 1845)
• Hyldemoer, 1851 (play)
• I Sverrig, 1851
  - Pictures of Sweden (translated by Charles Beckith, 1851) / In Sweden (translated by K.R.K. MacKenzie, 1852)
• Historier, 1852 (2 vols.)
• A Poet's Day Dreams, 1853
• Nøkken, 1853 (play, music by Franz Gläser)
• Samlede Skrifter, 1853-79 (33 vols.; 2nd ed., 15 vols., 1876-80)
• Mit Livs Eventyr, 1855 (rev. ed., 1859, 1877, edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen, 1951)
  - The Story of My Life (translated by Horace E. Scudder, 1871) / The Fairy Tale of My Life (translated by W. Glyn Jones, 1954)
• H.C. Andersen's Historier, 1855
• "At være eller ikke være", 1857
  - To Be, or Not to Be (translated by Anne Bushby, 1857)
• Nye Eventyr og Historier, 1858-67 (6 vols.)
• Nye Eventyr og Historier, 1858-72 (New Fairy Tales and Stories)
• I Spanien, 1863
  - In Spain (translated by Mrs. Bushby, 1864) / In Spain, and A Visit to Portugal (tr. 1870) / A Visit to Spain (translated by Grace Thornton, 1975)
• Paa Langebro , 1864 (play)
• Han er ikke født, 1864 (play)
• Da Spanierne var her, 1865 (play)
• Et Besøg i Portugal, 1866
  - In Spain, and A Visit to Portugal (tr. 1870) / A Vistit to Portugal (translated by Grace Thornton, 1972)
• Later Tales, 1869
• Lykke-Peer, 1870
  - Lucky Peer (tr. 1871; in The Complete Andersen, 1952)
• Collected Writings, 1870-71 (10 vols.)
• Samlede Skrifter. Anden Udgave. I-XV, 1876-80
• Breve, 1878 (2 vols, ed. by C.S.A. Bille and N. Bøgh)
• Briefwechsel mit den Grossherzog Carl Alexander von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach, 1887 (edited by Emil Jonas)
• Correspondence with the Late Grand-Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Charles Dickens, etc., 1891 (edited by Frederick Crawford)
• Eventyr og Historier I-V, 1918-20 (edited by Hans Brix and Anker Jensen)
• H. C. Andersens Levnedsbog 1805-1831, 1926
• H. C. Andersens Optegnelsesbog, 1926 (edited by Julius Clausen)
• H.C. Andersens Breve til Therese og Martin R. Henriques 1860-75, 1932 (edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen)
• H. C. Andersen Brevveksling med Edvard og Henriette Collin, 1933-37 (edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen)
• Mit eget Eventyr uden Digtning, 1846/1942
  - The True Story of My Life (translated by Mary Botham Howitt, 1847)
  - Elämäni tositarina (suom. Sirkka Heiskanen-Mäkelä, 1995)
• Romaner og Rejseskildringer, 1941-44 (7 vols.)
• H.C. Andersens brevveksling med Henriette Hanck, 1830-1846, 1941-46
• Andersiana, 1933-46
• H.C. Andersens brevveksling med Jonas Collin den ældre og andre medlemmer af det Collinske husI-III, 1945-48 (edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen)
•  Romerske dagbøger, 1947 (edited by Paul V. Rubow and H. Topsøe-Jensen)
• H.C. Andersen og Horace E. Scudder; en brevveksling, 1948 (edited by Jean Hersholt)
• Mit Livs Eventyr I-II, 1951 (edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen and H. G. Olrik)
• The Complete Andersen, 1952 (translated by Jean Hersholt, illustrated by Fritz Kredel)
• Seven Poems = Syv digte, 1955 (translated by R.P. Keigwin)
•  Reise fra Kjøbenhavn til Rhinen: til 150 aarsdagen for digterens fødsel, 1955 (edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen)
• H.C. Andersen og Henriette Wulff. En Brevveksling I-III, 1959-60 (edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen)
• H.C. Andersens breve til Mathias Weber, 1961 (edited by Arne Portman)
• Levnedsbogen 1805-1831, 1962 (edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen)
• H.C. Andersens Eventyr, 1963-1967 (5 vols., edited by Erik Dal, et al.)
• H.C. Andersens breve til Carl B. Lorck, 1969 (edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen)
•  Dagbøger 1825-1875, 1971-77 (edited by Kåre Olsen and H. Topsøe-Jensen)
  - The Diaries of Hans Christian Andersen (edited by Patricia L. Conroy, Sven H. Rossel, 1989)
• H. C. Andersens tegninger til Otto Zinck, 1972 (2 vols., edited by Kjeld Heltoft)
• Complete Fairy Tales and Stories, 1974 (translated by Erik Haugaard)
• Samlede eventyr og historier, 1975 (5 vols., edited by Erik Dahl)
• Rom: Dagbogsnotater og tegninger, 1980 (edited by H. Topsøe-Jensen)
• Album, 1980 (3 vols. edited by Kåre Olsen and others)
• Andersen's Fairy Tales, 1988 (edited by Ellen Shapiro; a collection of thirty-eight fairy tales by Andersen, including 'The Mermaid,' 'The Red Shoes,' and 'The Swineherd')