The Life and Times of Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark in 1805. In his long and illustrious career, he was variously a playwright, actor, puppeteer, visual artist, and author. His father, Hans Andersen, a cobbler, and his mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, a washerwoman, were of extremely modest means. When young Hans was just eleven, his father died and the family became nearly destitute.

Hans Andersen is credited with fostering his son’s creative spirit. The future writer spent countless hours making costumes and inventing stories for the puppet theater his father had built for him. The young man also was influenced by the theater in his native Odense. At the age of fourteen, Hans Christian Andersen convinced his mother to let him abandon his sporadic educational training to pursue a career at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen.

He struggled for three years to establish a serious reputation, but was asked to leave the Theater in 1822 because its managers did not believe he had sufficient potential for success. Andersen then resumed his formal education through the generous support of a patron. His first book, Youthful Attempts, was printed anonymously the same year. After completing his studies in 1829, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to writing. Tales Told for Children, Andersen’s initial volume for young readers, was published under his name in 1835. The work, along with other efforts from that period, resulted in national and international fame. Because of his great value to the country, Andersen was granted an annual lifetime stipend by the King of Denmark at the age of only 33.

Andersen made over 30 trips outside Denmark, including eventual voyages to Italy, Turkey, and Greece, and a visit to England at the height of his career in 1847. He traveled to England again in 1857 and spent five weeks in the home of Charles Dickens – an author he greatly admired.

Andersen’s works were translated into numerous languages during his lifetime, a testament to the popularity of his fairy tales and stories. He was welcomed by European nobility and enjoyed a wide circle of illustrious friends. The author developed a close relationship with the Danish Royal Family and lived briefly in what later would become part of the Royal Palace complex of Amalienborg in Copenhagen. He was so revered that many in England viewed him as the greatest living writer of his day. When Andersen died on August 4, 1875 his funeral was an international event.

Despite the uplifting messages and whimsical imagery that characterize his work, Andersen often was melancholy and anxious. He was unlucky in love and never married – and was forever fearful of being bullied as had been the case at school. The writer even worried that he would become mentally unstable like his grandfather. Perhaps because Andersen was such a tormented figure, he learned to rely on his artistic instincts as a means of escaping from these preoccupations.

His works have inspired authors and artists from Joyce Carol Oates to Vincent van Gogh and his fairy tales continue to delight and fascinate children and adults around the world. They lend themselves to creative reinterpretation, and the JJ Films production of The Wild Swans, with its remarkable artworks and costumes by H.M. the Queen of Denmark, stands out as an example of the enduring contribution of this renowned Danish writer.