Post by Susanne on May 20, 2021 13:36:04 GMT
Hans Christian's childhood home in Odensen.
Odense, Denmark
Hans Christian Andersen started his life on April 2, 1805 in a town called Odense on the small island, Funen (Fyn) in Denmark. He was born into a poor family. His parents moved around a lot during his first years. His father was a shoemaker and his mother was a laundry woman, who worked down by the creek. His mother had never learned how to read and write, while his father had learned how to read and write. However, the father was sad that he had never been given an education. A reason why the parents sent their son to a private school.
Hans Christian Andersen began his schooling in 1810 at Carstens School for boys, but it closed in 1813 and the young Hans Christian had to go to the local school for the poor. The boy's school years were marked by loneliness, bullying and he had trouble spelling. He spent most of his time on his own, playing theatre, singing and writing poems.
In 1816, his father died at the age of 33. Two years later his mother remarried. The year after that, Hans Christian Andersen left home and went to Copenhagen at the age of 14. He wanted to be famous.
Copenhagen, Denmark
His road to fame was long and experienced constant setbacks. He tried to enroll at the ballet, he tried to be a singer, writing plays. He met a lot of people, who told him to educated himself, so he could become a formed man.
Hans Christian Andersen
After getting a refusal for a play he had written, the Royal Theatre called him in. They would give him financial support for an education, first the Latin school in Slagelse and later the one in Helsingør. Same year Hans Christian debuted under the pseudonym Villiam Christian Walther with the novel "Youth Trial" without any bigger success.
Hans Christian graduated in 1828 and the following year he got his own debut with a fictive travelling story. It became a great success and gave him the first taste of fame both in Denmark and across the border.
Between 1827 and 1872, Hans Christian Andersen wrote 156 stories and fairytales.
Stories like:
The Little Mermaid,
The Tinderbox,
Thumbelina,
The Emperor's New Clothes,
The Princess and the Pea,
The Little Match Girl
Privately Hans Christian Andersen never married, although he fell for several women over the years. He died August 4, 1875 and is buried at Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen.
Today his fairytales live on. Disney took on The Little Mermaid and turned it into a cartoon and is currently in the works as a movie too. His fairytales are read all over the world from China in the East to the States in the West.
Sources: forfatterweb.dk/oversigt/andersen-h-c
