Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1805 in Odense, Denmark, the song of a poor washer–woman and a shoemaker.He spent the early years of his childhood listening to his father reading the Bible, Shakespeare, and the Arabian Nights. On Sundays he would visit the town’s mental hospital with his grandmother and listen to the old stories and folktales told by the inmates. He was shy and awkward and refused to attend school for fear of the teachers’ whips and his schoolmates’ teasings. He preferred to stay at home and cut out paper dolls and animals and make puppet shows.

At 14, rather than become and apprentice to a tailor, he set out for the great city of Copenhagen. He begged entrance into the home of the Director of the Royal Academy and sang and recited poems and parts of plays with such enthusiasm that the Director, as well as some of the guests, gave the boy money. They felt he had talent, though they did not know for what.

The next few years Hans studied singing and dancing in Copenhagen and began to write plays. He lived on one meal a day, usually at the home of a kind patron. But when he was 18, those that had helped in said that unless he returned to school he could go no further with his writing. So at 18, Andersen went to grammar school where he studied with children six and seven years old. But this time, though his teachers tormented him, he studied seriously and passed his university examination.

After he graduated he began to write novels, plays, and poems. They were published and met with success. Then at 30, he wrote a book of “Fairy Tales,” which were based on the stories he had heard as a child, but these the Danish literary critics condemned and considered unworthy of Andersen’s talents. Yet Andersen persisted, for he said, “the stories force themselves upon me and I cannot stop writing them.” Soon Denmark and Europe were clamoring for more Hans Andersen’s marvelous stories.

©1981 Diane Wolkstein.

As soon as Andersen’s stories were translated into English, they were treasured by American children. In 1950 Baroness Alma Dahlerup wanted to honor Andersen with a statue in Central Park. Her daughter, Ida–Gro Dahlerup, suggested surrounding the statue with benches to create a storytelling center. Through their efforts and those of many Danish Americans, as well as the school children of Denmark and New York City, sufficient funds were collected for the project. Georg Lober sculpted the statue of Andersen and The Duckling. They were unveiled in 1956.

The statue has become a symbol of the good relations between the United States and Denmark . Following a tradition established by her father and mother, Their Majesties King Frederik and Queen Margrethe II visited the statue in 1976 during her American Bicentennial trip. Other members of the Danish royal family continue to visit.

Today, at 74th Street and Fifth Avenue in Central Park a sign reads: “Quiet, please. Story hour in progress.” And every Saturday morning from June to October storytellers tell stories to New Yorkers and to visitors from all over the world at Andersen’s statue.

©1981 Diane Wolkstein.