Hans Christian Andersen
By Illa Vij

A CHILD who was poor, and neglected, yet grew up to be a world-famous author, was Hans Christian Andersen, from Denmark. He told the world folk tales, tales based on his own life and tales that brought out the foolishness of human beings. He even wrote some philosophical tales. His works include The Tinder Box and The Ugly Duckling, which was related to his own life. To vent his anger against the world, Andersen wrote She’s No Good and The Little Match Girl. The Emperor’s New Clothes brought out the foolishness of the emperor to the people of his kingdom.

His philosophical tales include The Story of a Mother and The Shadow.

Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, on April 2, 1805. His father was a poor shoemaker and Andersen was still a child of eleven years when he died. Hans and his father had been quite close. The father read aloud tales from The Arabian Nights, while the son’s imaginations travelled to far-off lands. Hans even sat outside the spinning room of his poor house and heard all the old wives’ tales. Once Hans saw his father undergo a very painful experience. A rich lady ordered a pair of scarlet silk slippers, but heartlessly refused to pay for them. This pain lay in Andersen’s heart and later he wrote the famous story, The Red Shoes. He painfully saw his father die, and at the age of 14 when his step-father entered his life, he left his home.

Andersen went to Copenhagen in search of fortune. He tried to dance for a famous ballerina, he tried reciting to a renowned playwright, what he had written for the puppets his father had given him, but neither of them was impressed. Then he met professor Siboni, who helped him study music. Then Jonas Collin, the Director of the Royal Theatre, obtained an educational fund for Hans. Soon the Collin family became very fond of him. Later, Andersen wrote epic poems, romantic novels and tragic plays — most of which are now forgotten.

His first fairy tales were published in 1835, and the children loved them. For the next 37 years, almost every Christmas, a new volume of Andersen’s fair tales appeared. His tales are so closely related to our lives in one way or the other, that he became famous the world over. His works were translated into numerous languages and honoured in all the courts of Europe. He was so happy with his own success that one day he realised that "it doesn’t matter if you are born in a duckyard, as long as you are hatched from a swan’s egg".

His happiest moment in life was when he went back to his ‘duckyard’ after a period of about 50 years. People welcomed him with songs, cheered him and held a feast in his honour. That’s when Andersen felt his life had become complete and all the loneliness of so many years had been eclipsed by happiness and contentment. He continued writing and completed 168 fairy tales between 1835 and 1872. He even wrote plays, and his first play, Love in St. Nicholas Church was produced in 1829. But his plays are not popular anymore. He wrote an autobiography titled The Fairy Tale of My Life. He never got married although he fell in love thrice. That is why the love that he received in his own ‘duckyard’ gave him immense joy and satisfaction. Andersen died in 1875.