The Fairy Tale of My Life (Mit Livs Eventyr) was first published by C.A. Reitzel in Copenhagen in 1855, with an expanded edition appearing in 1868. Andersen had written an earlier autobiography (The True Story of My Life, published in German in 1847), but The Fairy Tale of My Life is the definitive version — longer, more detailed, and written at the height of his fame.
The title is characteristic: Andersen saw his own life as a fairy tale — the poor boy who, through talent and determination, conquered the world. And the structure of the autobiography does follow the fairy-tale pattern: lowly origins, trials and tribulations, intervention by magical helpers (his patrons), and ultimate triumph. Andersen is quite aware of this parallel and exploits it deliberately, presenting himself as the hero of his own story.
The early chapters — childhood in Odense, the journey to Copenhagen at fourteen, the years of poverty and dependence on patrons — are vivid and moving. Andersen’s father was a cobbler who died when Hans Christian was eleven; his mother was a washerwoman who drank. The boy was tall, awkward, ugly, and possessed of an overwhelming desire for fame that he could not explain or suppress. His arrival in Copenhagen — penniless, friendless, and certain that he was destined for greatness — is one of the great stories of artistic determination.
The later sections trace his European travels, his friendships with the great (Dickens, the Grimms, Victor Hugo), and his growing fame — but also his persistent unhappiness, his loneliness, his hypersensitivity to criticism, and his inability to form lasting intimate relationships.
Collecting The Fairy Tale of My Life
First edition (C.A. Reitzel, Copenhagen, 1855): Danish text.
Market values:
- First Danish edition: $200–$600
- First English translations (various, 1850s–1870s): $80–$250
- Modern editions: $10–$25