Hans Christian Andersen: A New Life

This is a well written and generally what one would call an excellent 600 page biography of perhaps Denmark's most famous writer who lived from 1805 to 1875. The book has lots of photographs and many interesting pieces of information. It goes into his life at a fine level of detail, and attempts to combine his life story with his travels and his writings, explaining the private and public personalities. I found the book to be expensive at book stores, very expensive, almost too expensive to buy, but it is less expensive as an on line purchase. It is written in a folksy style, a bit different from many biographies, and each chapter has a short one page introduction in italics to set the mood for that chapter. It covers most of his life in great detail more or less in chronological order starting with the young teen age Andersen about 14 - from poor parents - and his break at the Royal Theatre around 1820. There are some excellent photographs of the aging Andersen. The book tells a fairly detailed story of his breaks and opportunities that allowed him to finish school and obtain some university level education at the Copenhagen University. The book includes many references to his writings including his first writings when he was just seventeen. Like many other famous writers such as Dickens, he came from a home where the father had failed to provide economic support and he had to find work in his youth to survive - and then his father died when he was just 11 years old. Like Dickens and others, that changed his outlook on the world, and Andersen wrote hundreds of stories and short pieces often with the aim of entertaining children to make them happier. Despite the economic hardships, he did gain some inspiration from his father. His mother was interested in folklore and that was passed onto Andersen and reflected in some of his writings. There are chapters on his travels and some on interactions with other European writers of his era in Germany, France and England, and in fact he did meet Dickens. An interesting chapter describes how the famous Andersen lives in his own country of Denmark often living as a free guest as a celebrity getting free meals and lodging - in a way similar to some of our modern athletes or movie stars who go to restaurants or resorts and expect to get free meals in exchange for being photographed with the owner, or giving them signed baseballs, etc. Overall this is a good read and one can get a fairly good understanding of Andersen, right up to his declining years. He made a name for himself as a writer of fairy tales for children - about farm animals and similar that carry on in conversations as if they are people. He expanded this to include his travels as an element of his writings, Italy being one of the most famous countries, but not the only country. This topic is well covered in the book including trips from Denmark to Portugal and elsewhere. The book is very well organized - much more so than many biographies - an

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN as written by Jens Andersen and beautifully translated form the Danish by Tiina Nunnally is that sort of biography we all long to read: the facts are all well-researched, the data is all in place, but the book reads like a novel. Andersen's background is a fairytale unto itself and if ever there was a man whose beginnings belied his later success and durability as a writer, this man is it. Gratefully his oeuvre was appreciated in his lifetime and his wondrous tales have pleasured young and old alike for well over a hundred years. In his native Denmark he is considered a near 'saint' and his books have been translated into every language and are in the homes of children of all ages throughout the world. This biography is, thankfully, not afraid to discuss those darker aspects of Andersen's life, but the way in which the author deals with this difficult information is the model of excellent reportage. The narrative style of Andersen on Andersen is by far the most positive aspect of this fine book. Despite the weight (over 600 pages) of this tome, it is not daunting in the least. It reads quickly and entertainingly and is as fine as any biography of the world's favorite children's writer on the shelves. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, June 05