06-09 Happy Birthday HC Andersen.Indd
Happy Birthday, Hans Christian Andersen! by Marjorie R. Hancock Preschool through elementary school n April 2, 1805, in a quaint life a fairy tale, and many of his stories On August 4, 1875, at the age of cottage on a cobblestone reveal aspects of his own experiences in 70, H. C. Andersen died. Loved by Ostreet in Odense, Denmark, some guise. writers, revered in his homeland, and the master of the fairy-tale genre was As Andersen gained fame for his honored all over the world, Andersen born—Hans Christian Andersen. As charming storytelling, he became a was nevertheless melancholy for most the bicentennial of his birth draws frequent dinner guest of royal heads of his life. Yet his legacy remains, as near, it seems appropriate to revisit of Europe, who enjoyed his company every children’s book with personified, his early life, his personal and profes- and his tales. Translated into more nonhuman characters is, in some way, sional struggles, his lifelong pursuit of than 100 languages, Andersen’s stories descended from Andersen’s tales. His fame, and his ultimate rec- trademark themes reveal that sad- ognition as an international ness can be lightened by unex- celebrity and creator of more pected happiness at the end of a than 150 fairy tales. To read journey or the close of a tale. the tales of H. C. Andersen (as he is known in Denmark) is to discover the joys and disappointments of his own Artist Joel Stewart depicts fairy-tale life and to hear his the master storyteller in distinctive storytelling voice.
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