HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN (1805-1875) was born in Odense, then the second city of Denmark, the son of a shoemaker and a washerwoman. His father died when he was eleven. He left home for Copenhagen at the age of fourteen in an unsuccessful attempt at a career on the stage. He managed to complete secondary education in his early twenties. After early difficulties with social acceptance as a young man, he travelled widely throughout Europe and met and befriended many writers and artists of the day. His writings outside the fairy-tale genre include novels, novellas and stories, travelogues, autobiographies and stage works.
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