In A Nutshell
Hans Christian Andersen is one of the most important writers who ever lived. Without him we’d have no Thumbelina, no one would have heard of the Red Shoes and about 80 percent of Disney’s back catalog would be missing. He redefined written Danish and published some of the most successful children’s stories ever written . . . all while living as a lonely man who kept a detailed diary of desires he never acted on.
The Whole Bushel
Like Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen is one of those writers just about everyone has heard of. Over the course of a glittering literary career he gave the world The Little Mermaid, re-wrote the rule book on children’s stories, and became Denmark’s unofficial poet in chief. Today he’s remembered as an odd, melancholy man who refused to marry in order to stay pure. It’s a nice idea, but his own diaries tell a messier story. By all accounts, including his own, Andersen’s private life was a good deal more tormented than that.
For one thing, he used to keep a diary in which he described, in glorious detail, whenever he masturbated—using a “+” symbol to denote a particularly good one. And Andersen masturbated a lot. After receiving visitors, he’d frequently nip upstairs to get a little DIY in, picturing his unsuspecting caller. For another, he used to visit brothels in Paris where he’d simply chat to the prostitutes before running home to finish himself off (all described in delightful detail in his diary).
Nor did Andersen regulate his desires to one gender. Biographers still argue over how to label him, but there’s good evidence he had crushes on both men and women. He fell hard for a string of young men and carried torches for several women too. During his stay with Charles Dickens in 1857, he asked to be shaved by one of Dickens’ older sons each morning, a request the British author grumpily turned down. It’s said he spent his life filled with “tortuous unrequited sexual yearnings” for both men and women, from the singer Jenny Lind to the son of a Danish patron—yet by his own account he never acted on them and died a virgin. For all he may have written some of the most incredible stories ever recorded, his private life stayed a lot lonelier and stranger than any of his fairy tales.
Show Me The Proof
The Independent: A tale of two writers
The Guardian: The perverse side of Hans Christian Andersen
Outrage at proposals for Hans Christian Andersen ‘Gay Week’
