Fairy-tale author was generous, vain

Question: What did he look like?

Answer: He was over 6 feet tall, thin, with deep-set, gray-blue eyes. He had his hair curled. In 1873, he got a new set of dentures, after a life of dental pain.

Question: How was he as a person?

Answer: He was generous. Afraid of fire. Had a few anxieties, but nevertheless journeyed fearlessly out into the world, which was a dangerous undertaking at that time. His entire career required tremendous bravery. He was vain and so sensitive that those around him sometimes found him ridiculous and intolerable.

Question: Did he like children?

Answer: Yes, he loved children. His special understanding of their way of thinking and acting is displayed in his fairy tales. However, he did not like children sitting on his lap when he read aloud.

Question: What kind of music did he like?

Answer: He was particularly fond of opera.

Question: How did he feel about technology?

Answer: He was keenly interested in it. He was captivated by new inventions such as the railway, the telegraph and photography, and was one of the first to try them all.

Question: Did he like to cook?

Answer: He did not. He took all his meals either as a lodger or a guest.

Question: What has Hans Christian Andersen meant for the world and especially for Denmark?

Answer: That is not easy to answer quickly, but his works have become more widespread than any other author. He is read by Chinese students in school, and on the whole, is well-known and appreciated in China and Japan. One might say that, like the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, he had the special knack of turning ideas into tales — in a particularly Nordic, melancholy, and at the same time, witty, way. His fairy tales are philosophical, told with amazing narrative joy and sparkling imagination in beautiful, elegant language. His fairy tales have the special quality of being able to speak to children and adults alike.