Live fairy tales
2 April 1805 4 August 1875 Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, a city on the island of Funen (Fyn, Denmark), day 2 April 1805. He spent a childhood rather troubled in the poorest districts of his native city, along with his father Hans, a shoemaker, and his mother Anne Marie Andersdatter, 15 years his senior. Began his career as a writer at the age of 30 years: he travels to Italy to publish his first work, "The improviser", which will kick off in a long career and a very rich literary output between novels, poems, plays, biographies, autobiographies, travel writings, articles, humorous and satirical writings. However the name of Hans Christian Andersen is consigned to history of world literature mainly due to its production of fairy tales, effectively immortal: best known titles include "the Princess and the pea" (1835), "the Little Mermaid" (1837), "the Emperor's new clothes (1837-1838)," the ugly duckling, "" the little match girl, "" Tin soldier "(1845)," the snow Queen "(1844-1846). There are countless stories, scripts and libraries produced by Andersen in this field. His books have been translated into every language probably known: in 2005, on the 200th anniversary since its inception, there were 153 translations languages. Tireless traveler, he explored every corner of the world he could reach, traveling between Asia, Europe and Africa; this passion for discovery was just the element that Andersen did produce many exciting travelogues. Andersen's work has influenced many contemporary authors but also later: among these we can mention Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Oscar Wilde. Hans Christian Andersen died on day 4 August 1875 in Copenhagen.