Anecdotes

Contrary to the movie versions, Andersen's stories usually came to sad or unfortunate conclusions. "The Little Mermaid" committed suicide; "The Little Match Girl" froze to death; "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" melted; and although the heroine triumphed, "The Snow Queen" survives too!.

Andersen was born with dyslexia. Although he learned to read, he could never spell properly, and his manuscripts were littered with errors. His publishers corrected his mistakes.

Although known today for his fairy tales, Andersen also wrote 36 plays; six travel books; six novels; hundreds of poems, and approximately 170 short stories.

Some of his most popular fairy tales include "The Little Mermaid", "The Princess and the Pea", "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Match Girl", "The Snow Queen", "Thumbelina", "The Wild Swans", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Steadfast Tin Soldier".

His grandfather went insane.

Although Andersen had many crushes on women and several infatuations he never married, and actually lived alone.

His grandmother, as a young woman, was imprisoned for repeatedly producing illegitimate children, which was a crime at the time.

Throughout his life, Andersen had a personal obsession with the Swedish opera singer, Jenny Lind.

Andersen made 30 long journeys in his life, which inspired his novels and fairy tales. He traveled to Germany, England, Italy, Spain and Turkey.

Andersen had such a low opinion of his mother that he used her as the subject of a short story that he wrote, titled, "She Was Never Good for Anything".

Unlike many writers, he was widely popular during his lifetime. In 1867, he was appointed Councillor of State in his native Danmark and became Honorary Citizen in Odense.

His mother was an alcoholic washerwoman.

Among other 19th century celebrities, Andersen had a reputation as a groupie and a gate-crasher. German poet Heinrich Heine dismissed Andersen as a social climber.

His birthday, 2 April, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.

A Shanghai theme park based on his fairy tales opened at the end of 2006.

Two museums, "H.C. Andersen Hus" and "H.C. Andersens Barndomshjem", are dedicated to him and his work in his hometown Odense.

In 1833, on a visit to Paris, he paid a social call on Victor Hugo at his house.

Was interred in the Assistens Kirkegard in Copenhagen.