4 August 1875: Hans Christian Andersen dies

According to biographer Jackie Wullschlager, Hans Christian Andersen was afraid of being buried alive. He spent his final days at the home of his friends Dorothea and Moritz Melchior in Copenhagen, and as the end neared, begged Dorothea to cut his veins after he’d breathed what appeared to be his last breath. Dorothea “joked that he could do as he had often done, and leave a note saying ‘I only appear to be dead’ beside him.” The note was a fixture of Andersen’s bedside table. [1]

Hans Christian Andersen is remembered as the most creative and widely read fairy tales author of all time. Although also a novelist, poet, playwright and essayist, Andersen’s fairy tales became his identity and his greatest contribution to world literature. He died on 4 August 1875 at the age of 70.

Born on 2 April 1805 in a one-bedroom house in one of the poor quarters of Odense, Hans Christian Andersen was the son of a cobbler and a washerwoman. Left fatherless at a young age, he moved to Copenhagen to start a career as an actor, before eventually returning to his education at the University of Copenhagen in 1828.

A lifelong bachelor, Andersen lived most of his life as a guest at the country homes of wealthy Danish people. He made many journeys abroad, where he met and, in many cases, became friends with well-known Europeans including Charles Dickens.

Andersen’s search for love never ended in the ‘happily ever after’ of his tales, and his insecurities made him obsessively rewrite the story of his life. His own life was captured in the story of The Ugly Duckling. He rose to become the ‘swan’ of Europe, showered with honours and medals. In his era, children’s stories were meant to educate and moralise. But Andersen wrote his tales in a chatty, informal style and aimed to amuse. His 156 stories have been translated into 125 languages.

In early 1872, at age 67, Andersen fell out of his bed and was severely hurt. He never fully recovered from injuries from this fall. Soon afterward he started to show signs of liver cancer. He died on 4 August 1875 near Copenhagen.

At the time of his death, Andersen was internationally revered, and the Danish Government paid him an annual stipend as a “national treasure.”
Andersen’s wonderful fairy tales laid the groundwork for most of the great children’s literature to come. He was also a talented artist (his paper cut-outs are treasured items in museums), a novelist and travel writer.