Hans Christian Andersen: interesting facts from life and biography

Hans Christian Andersen is a famous Danish storyteller. Andersen's fairy tales are known and loved by children and adults all over the world.

Interesting Hans Christian Andersen Facts:

Andersen began writing fairy tales as a child. While still at school, he wrote the fairy tale "The Tallow Candle". This was his first work.
As a child, Hans Christian Andersen suffered from dyslexia. Dyslexia is a learning disability. He studied poorly and often made mistakes when writing his fairy tales. Even in his old age, H. H. Andersen was not a very literate person.
As a child, Andersen had no friends, teachers scolded him. The boy did not find understanding anywhere and one day a girl named Sarah gave him a white rose. G.H. Andersen remembered this incident for the rest of his life. Since then, the white rose for the writer is a symbol of a miracle. He wrote about the magic rose in his fairy tales.
He really did not like that he was constantly called a writer of children's fairy tales. He said that he composes his works for everyone. For this reason, he ordered that there should be no children on the monument in his honor, on which the originally famous writer was supposed to be surrounded by cheerful children. Now in the city of Copenhagen there is a monument to the writer, who sits alone in an armchair with an open book.

GH Andersen was tall and thin. He was not very handsome, but he had the kindest smile that made him attractive and charming.
G.H. Andersen had many phobias.
One of the writer's phobias was the fear of dying in a fire, so he always carried a rope with him in order to be able to escape through the window in case of fire.
Another writer's phobia was the fear of being buried alive. Because of this, he asked to have his artery cut at the funeral.
The storyteller was terribly afraid of dogs, even a small dog caused him panic fear.
He was afraid of being poisoned. One day, Hans Christian did not accept a gift from Danish children - a huge box of chocolates, because he was afraid that the children wanted to poison him.

He was a great admirer of the work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Friends of Hans Christian Andersen knew about it. They gave him an Elegy, which Alexander Pushkin signed especially for Hans Christian Andersen. G.H. Andersen kept the book until the end of his days.
The first work of G.Kh. Andersen's "Tallow Candle", written by him while still at school, was found only in 2012 by a Danish historian.
He asked the composer Hartman to compose a funeral march for him, similar to a children's march. He assumed that children would come to his funeral, not thinking about the fact that this could bring them sadness and tears.
G.Kh. Andersen wrote fairy tales, of course, mostly children read them, but the famous author was not afraid to injure the child's psyche. That is why many of his fairy tales did not end happily, and sometimes tragically.
The writer's family has always been poor. His parents were a shoemaker and a laundress. But, despite this, Andersen became a famous writer, and by the end of his life he became rich.
He had many diseases. He was often sick.
The writer was afraid of scratches and other damage to his body.
He never worried about his appearance. He often walked around the city in a worn hat and shabby coat.

The writer never bought unnecessary and useless things.
G. H. Andersen's favorite work, written by himself, is The Little Mermaid. It touched him to the core.
H. H. Andersen wrote an autobiographical work - "The Tale of My Life."
In his fairy tale "Two Brothers" G.Kh. Andersen described the famous brothers Hans Christian and Anders Oersted.
There is a legend in Denmark that G. H. Andersen came from a royal family. G. H. Andersen himself considered himself the son of a Danish monarch. The legend was formed from Hans's autobiographical notes, in which he described how he played with the prince, who later became King Frederick the Third. Their friendship is lifelong, until Frederick's death. G. H. Andersen was admitted to the coffin of the king along with a narrow circle of the royal family. This legend has not yet been confirmed, but not refuted either. However, Danish scientists and historians want to conduct an examination to confirm or deny the royal origin of Andersen.

The famous storyteller experienced toothache all his life. He was very superstitious and thought that his writing talent depended on the number of teeth.
From 1918 to 1986 Andersen was the most published foreign author in the Soviet Union.
He spent his whole life in solitude. His parents died when he was just a child. He had no wife or children. He never loved, Andersen did not have a beloved woman.
But despite his popularity, his books were heavily censored. When translating, any references to the church and religion were removed from the works. Thus, the meaning of the works was often distorted, and the books themselves were reduced in volume.
Due to strict censorship, the fairy tale "The Snow Queen" suffered greatly. In difficult situations, moments of danger, Gerda prayed, which was not in the Russian translation. Because of this, the tale lost some of its meaning.
He wrote several fairy tales about the great scientist Isaac Newton.
He loved to travel, he managed to travel almost all of Europe.
The writer met with Charles Dickens in London.

G. H. Andersen was an admirer of the work of the German poet Heine.
In 1980, Andersengrad, an entertainment complex for children, was built in Sosnovy Bor. The children's city was created in a medieval style with various elements associated with the fairy tales of H. H. Andersen. There are monuments to the Little Mermaid and the Tin Soldier.
G.H. Andersen wrote his fairy tales very quickly. The longest period for writing a work is two days.
The tale of G.Kh. Andersen "The King's New Dress" was published in the first Soviet primer, which was compiled by Leo Tolstoy. However, this work was subjected to strict censorship.
In honor of the famous writer, the G.Kh. Andersen. It is awarded annually to talented children's writers on the writer's birthday - April 2.
Every year on April 2, the world celebrates International Children's Book Day.
The great writer died alone at the age of 70.