Editing Hans Christian Andersen (section)

==Career==

===Early work===
{{Quote box |align=right| width=30em |quote=It doesn't matter about being born in a duckyard, as long as you are hatched from a swan's egg.|source="[[The Ugly Duckling]]"}}

A very early fairy tale by Andersen, "[[The Tallow Candle]]" ({{langx|da|Tællelyset}}), was discovered in a Danish archive in October 2012. The story, written in the 1820s, is about a candle that does not feel appreciated. It was written while Andersen was still in school and dedicated to one of his benefactors. The story remained in that family's possession until it was found among other family papers in a local archive.<ref>{{cite web |last=Stockmann |first=Camilla |date=12 December 2012 |title=Local historian finds Hans Christian Andersen's first fairy tale |url=https://politiken.dk/newsinenglish_/art5435657/Local-historian-finds-Hans-Christian-Andersenrsquos-first-fairy-tale |access-date=17 November 2023 |website=Politiken.dk |archive-date=18 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231118232142/https://politiken.dk/newsinenglish_/art5435657/Local-historian-finds-Hans-Christian-Andersenrsquos-first-fairy-tale |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1829, Andersen enjoyed considerable success with the short story "A Journey on Foot from [[Holmen, Copenhagen|Holmen]]'s Canal to the East Point of [[Amager]]." Its protagonist meets characters ranging from [[Saint Peter]] to a talking cat. Andersen followed this success with a theatrical piece, ''Love on St. Nicholas Church Tower'', and a short volume of poems. He made little progress in writing and publishing immediately following these poems, but did receive a small travel grant from the king in 1833. This enabled Andersen to set out on the first of many journeys throughout Europe. At [[Canton of Jura|Jura]], near [[Le Locle]], Switzerland, Andersen wrote the story "Agnete and the Merman." The same year, he spent an evening in the Italian seaside village of [[Sestri Levante]], which inspired the title of "The Bay of Fables."<ref>{{cite web |title=Premio e Festival Andersen di Sestri Levante |url=https://andersensestri.it/ |url-status= |access-date=17 November 2023 |website=Andersen Premio e Festival |language=it}}</ref> Andersen arrived in [[Rome]] in October 1834. His travels in Italy were reflected in his first novel, a fictionalized autobiography titled ''[[The Improvisatore]]'' ({{lang|da|Improvisatoren}}), published in 1835 to instant acclaim.<ref name="Murray2013">{{cite book|first=Christopher John |last=Murray|title=Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760–1850|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8GS8DWMLRYEC&pg=PA20|year=2013|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1-135-45579-8|page=20}}</ref><ref name="Sjåvik2006">{{cite book|first=Jan |last=Sjåvik|title=Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Literature and Theater|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tCBpiKsi7a0C&pg=RA1-PA8|year=2006|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6501-3|page=20}}</ref>

===Literary fairy tales===
[[File:Hans Christian Andersen - The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep - silhouette.jpg|upright=.8|left|thumb|A paper chimney sweep [[Scherenschnitte|cut]] by Andersen]]

''Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection'' ([[Danish language|Danish]]: ''Eventyr, fortalt for Børn. Første Samling.'') is a collection of nine [[fairy tale]]s by Andersen. The tales were published in a series of three installments by C. A. Reitzel in [[Copenhagen]] between May 1835 and April 1837. They were Andersen's first venture into the fairy tale genre.

The first installment was a volume of sixty-one unbound pages published 8 May 1835 containing "[[The Tinderbox]]", "[[Little Claus and Big Claus]]", "[[The Princess and the Pea]]" and "Little Ida's Flowers". The first three tales were based on folktales Andersen had heard in his childhood. The fourth was Andersen's creation for Ida Thiele, the daughter of folklorist [[Just Mathias Thiele]], Andersen's early benefactor. Reitzel paid Andersen thirty [[Danish rigsdaler|rigsdalers]] for the manuscript, and the booklet was priced at 24 shillings.<ref name="WullschlagerP150">{{Harvnb|Wullschläger|2000|p=150}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Frank|Frank|2004|p=13}}</ref>

The second booklet was published on 16 December 1835 and contained "The Naughty Boy", and "The Traveling Companion", and "[[Thumbelina]]." The lattermost was inspired by "[[Tom Thumb]]" and other stories of miniature people. "The Naughty Boy" was based on a poem about [[Eros]] from the ''[[Anacreontea]]'', and "The Traveling Companion" was a ghost story Andersen had experimented with in the year 1830.<ref name="WullschlagerP150" />

[[File:C.A. Jensen 1836 - HC Andersen.jpg|upright=.8|thumb|Andersen in 1836]]

The third booklet contained "[[The Little Mermaid]]" and "[[The Emperor's New Clothes]]", and it was published on 7 April 1837. The former was influenced by [[Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué]]'s [[Undine (novella)|''Undine'']] (1811) and legends about [[mermaid]]s. This tale established Andersen's international reputation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wullschläger|2000|p=174}}</ref> The only other tale in the third booklet was "The Emperor's New Clothes", which was based on a [[Medieval Spanish literature|medieval Spanish]] story with [[Arab culture|Arab]] and [[Jewish culture|Jewish]] origins. On the eve of the third installment's publication, Andersen revised the conclusion (in which the Emperor simply walks in procession) to its now-famous finale of a child calling out, "The Emperor is not wearing any clothes!"<ref>{{Harvnb|Wullschläger|2000|p=176}}</ref>

Danish reviews of the first two booklets first appeared in 1836 and were not enthusiastic. The critics disliked the chatty, informal style and apparent immorality, since children's literature was meant to educate rather than to amuse. The critics discouraged Andersen from pursuing this type of style. Andersen believed that he was working against the critics' preconceived notions about fairy tales, and he temporarily returned to novel-writing, waiting a full year before publishing his third installment.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wullschläger|2000|pp=150,165}}</ref>

The nine tales from the three booklets were published in one volume and sold for seventy-two shillings. A title page, a table of contents, and a [[preface]] by Andersen were published in this volume.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wullschläger|2000|p=178}}</ref>

In 1868, [[Horace Scudder]], the editor of ''[[Riverside Magazine For Young People]]'', offered Andersen $500 for 12 new stories. Sixteen of Andersen's stories were published in the magazine, and 10 of them appeared there before they were printed in Denmark.<ref>Rossel, Sven Hakon, ''Hans Christian Anderson, Writer and Citizen of the World'', Rodopi, 1996</ref>

===Travelogues===
[[File:Hans Christian Andersen 2.jpg|thumb|upright|Portrait of Andersen by [[Franz Hanfstaengl]], dated July 1860]]

In 1851, Andersen published ''In Sweden'', a volume of travel sketches. The publication received wide acclaim. A keen traveler, he published several other long [[travel literature|travelogues]]: ''Shadow Pictures of a Journey to the Harz, Swiss Saxony, etc. etc. in the Summer of 1831'', ''A Poet's Bazaar'', ''In Spain'', and ''A Visit to Portugal in 1866''. (The last one describes his visit with his Portuguese friends Jorge and José O'Neill, whom Andersen knew in the mid-1820s while he was living in Copenhagen.) In his travelogues, Andersen used contemporary conventions related to travel writing but developed the style to make it his own. Each of Andersen's travelogues combines documentary and descriptive accounts of his experiences, adding additional philosophical passages on topics such as authorship, immortality, and fiction in literary travel reports. Some of the travelogues, such as ''In Sweden'', contain fairy tales.

In the 1840s, Andersen's attention returned to the theatre stage, but with little success. He had better luck with the publication of the ''Picture-Book without Pictures'' (1840). Andersen started a second series of fairy tales in 1838 and a third series in 1845. At this point, he was celebrated throughout Europe, although Andersen's native Denmark still showed some resistance to his pretensions.

Between 1845 and 1864, Andersen lived at [[Nyhavn 67]], Copenhagen, where a memorial plaque is now placed.<ref name="Official Tourism Site of Copenhagen">{{cite web |title=In the footsteps of Andersen |url=http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/content/press/press_information/hans_christian_andersen/in_the_footsteps_of_andersen |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725103354/http://www.visitcopenhagen.com/content/press/press_information/hans_christian_andersen/in_the_footsteps_of_andersen |archive-date=25 July 2008 |access-date=2 April 2010 |website=Visitcopenhagen.com }}</ref>

Patrons of Andersen's writings included the [[monarchy of Denmark]], the [[House of Glücksburg#Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg|House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg]]. An unexpected invitation from [[Christian IX of Denmark|King Christian IX]] to the royal palace entrenched Andersen's folklore in Danish royalty as well as making its way to the Romanov dynasty when Christian IX's daughter [[Maria Feodorovna (Dagmar of Denmark)|Maria Feodorovna]] married [[Alexander III of Russia]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Кудряшов |first=Константин |date=25 November 2017 |title=Дагмар – принцесса на русской горошине. Как Андерсен вошёл у нас в моду |url=https://aif.ru/society/history/dagmar_princessa_na_russkoy_goroshine_kak_andersen_voshyol_u_nas_v_modu |access-date=20 December 2020 |website=aif.ru |language=ru}}</ref>