What fairy tales are made of
2003-01-31 11:34
Denmark - A rare letter by fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen to his mother, the only one known to exist, has been found, the Royal Library said on Thursday.
"Although we know that he had received at least 25 letters from her, experts have for years been saying that there existed no letters from him to her," said Kirsten Dreyer, commissioned by the Royal Library to write a biography based on selected Andersen correspondence.
Last year she found the one-page letter, written in 1831, when scrolling through "thousands" of his notes archived at the downtown Copenhagen library.
The library decided to go public with the discovery this week.
"He was known to be an eager letter writer," Dreyer said about the author of The Little Match Girl, The Ugly Duckling and The Red Shoes.
Andersen corresponded with family members, friends and the royal family, whom he knew. When he died in 1875 at the age of 70, Andersen was well-known among the upper classes, but his stories did not achieve international fame until after his death.
Some letters are believed to have been destroyed; others are archived at the Hans Christian Andersen Centre or on display at his museum. Both are located at his birthplace in Odense, 170 kilometres west of Copenhagen, the Danish capital.
The letter, which has not yet been translated into English, "is priceless and is now in a vault," Dreyer said.
On August 19, 1831, Andersen, who lived in Copenhagen, started writing the letter with the purpose of sending his mother some money. For unknown reasons, he failed to mail it immediately. On September 2, he added five more lines before sending it.
Andersen, 26 at the time, enclosed a daler, or the equivalent of three daily salaries of an average workman.
Illiterate, Anne Marie Andersdatter worked as a washerwoman in Odense but also begged on the streets. She had others read and write letters to her son to ask him for money, Dreyer said. Andersdatter means 'daughter of Anders', the name of her father.
The letter, said Dreyer, illustrates Andersen's devotion to his mother but also his perpetual money troubles. Andersen, who was at the beginning of his career, tells her in the letter that he hopes to send another daler soon but informs her that he has a lot of expenses because of his foreign trips.
Dreyer said the letter may be put on display "behind thick and secure glass" in 2005 in connection with the Royal Library's exhibition, part of the nationwide celebrations of the bicentennial of Andersen's birth.
On the web:
The letter
The 2005 anniversary website
The Hans Christian Andersen Centre - Sapa-AP
- SAPA