Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was Denmark's most famous writer, born in Odense the son of a shoemaker and an illiterate washerwoman. At fourteen he went to Copenhagen to become an actor. At the Royal Danish Theatre he lost his singing voice; Jonas Collin arranged for his schooling.

A travel grant in 1833 began years of travel across Europe, and his first novel The Improvisatore succeeded in 1835. The same year he published the first of his Fairy Tales Told for Children. Critics disliked their chatty style, but The Little Mermaid made his name, and in The Emperor's New Clothes a child cries out that the emperor wears nothing.

His 156 tales, among them The Ugly Duckling and The Snow Queen, have been translated into more than 125 languages. He died in 1875, having asked that the funeral march keep time with little steps, since most mourners would be children.