Editing Hans Christian Andersen (section)

===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>