MOTHER GOOSE'S ATTIC - Vintage Children's Books

Hans Andersen

He was born in Odense, Denmark in 1805. He was first published in 1835 with a small work of fiction called the "Improvisatore" that achieved modest success. Later that same year he published a book of short stories for children called "Tales told for Children" which immediately assured his popularity.

It was to be a further ten years before his famous stories were translated into an English version but when they were, they took the country by storm, affording him celebrity status and the admiration of fellow authors such as Charles Dickens who openly praised his work. He died in 1875 at the age of 70 years old.

His first rare edtion in English was called "Wonderful Stories for Children" and was translated by Mary Howitt for the Publisher Chapman & Hall, 1846. Among the most sort after later versions are ones illustrated by Mabel Lucie Atwell, that was published by Raphael Tuck in 1914 just before the outbreak of World War l and a version published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1924. This came in its own special box and was simply called "Fairy Tales" . The text is accompanied by some beautifully evocative pictures by the artist Kay Nielsen.

Biographies

The Fairy Tale of My Life, Copenhagen, 1855.
Translated into English, with additional material, Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., usa, 1871.
Abridged edition, published under the title The Mermaid Man, Barker, London, 1955.
Hans Christian Andersen, , by R. N Bain, Lawrence and Bullen, London, 1895.
The Life of Hans Christian Andersen, by Signe Toksvig, Macmillan, London, 1933
The Shoemaker's Son: the life of Hans Christian Andersen, by Constance Buhl Burnett, Harrap, London, 1943.
Swan of Denmark: the story of Hans Christian Andersen, by Ruth Manning-Sanders,Heinemann, London, 1949
The Story of Hans Christian Andersen, by Esther Meynell, Methuen, London,1949
Hans Christian Andersen, by Rumer Godden, Hutchinson, London, 1955.
Hans Christian Andersen, by Svend Larsen and translated into English b y Mabel Dyrup, Odense. Denmark, 1961
The Wild Swan, by Monica Stirling, Collins, London, 1965.

Here are some of his best stories

The Angel (1843)
The Bell (1845)
The Emperor's New Clothes (1837)
The Fir Tree (1844)
The Happy Family (1847)
It's Quite True! (1852)
The Little Match Girl (1848)
The Little Mermaid (1836)
Little Tuck (1847)
The Nightingale (1844)
The Old House (1847)
Sandman (1841
The Princess and the Pea (1835; also known as The Real Princess)
The Red Shoes (1845)
The Shadow (1847)
The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep (1845)
The Snow Queen (1844
The Steadfast Tin Soldier (1838)
The Story of a Mother (1847)
The Swineherd (1841)
Thumbelina (1835)
The Tinder Box (1835)
The Ugly Duckling (1844)
The Wild Swans (1838)

Fairytales, Told for Children (1835)
New Fairytales (1845)
Wonderful Stories for Children (1846)
A Christmas Greeting to My English Friends (1847)
The Complete Illustrated Stories of Hans Christian Andersen (1889)
Stories from Hans Andersen (1911)
Fairy Tales (1913)