1 . Anderson was born in the slums(贫民区) of Odense, Denmark, on April 2,1805. His early life was not easy. His father was a shoemaker and his mother worked as a washerwoman. He received little early education. As a child he was very emotional and was laughed at for being feminine(女性化)and tall.

In l8l6 his father died and Andersen was forced to go out to work. first in a tailor’s shop and then at a tobacco factory. At the age of l4 Anderson moved to Copenhagen to start a career as a singer and actor. He struggled for three years until he had to leave the theatre when his voice broke in l822.

Anderson went to a grammar school after he left the theatre. Having done well he was admitted to Copenhagen University in 1828.

He began to publish his fairy tales in 1835. They came out in small volumes(量) until his death. Nowadays, children all around the world are familiar with his fairy tales such as “The Little Mermaid ”(《美人鱼》)，“The Princess and the Pea” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. The colourful characters from the stories made us laugh and cry throughout our childhood. Although Anderson lived a hard life, he tried to make people laugh in all his stories. He wrote because he didn’t want children to have a sad childhood as he did. “Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched(孵化) from a swan’s egg,” he once said．

The work brought Anderson world fame, but he remained a lonely man. He loved three women in his life but none of them loved him back and he never married. His friends were the people that paid for his work and not people he was particularly close to. “Just living is not enough…One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower,’’ he said.

Anderson died on August 4, l 875.

Anderson