Hans Christian Andersen was born in 1805 in Odense, Denmark . His father was a shoemaker and very poor. He and his mother and father lived in one room. When he was a small boy he loved to read. Not only did he read the plays of Shakespeare, but he memorized some of them and then recited it while he used dolls to play the different parts. His father died when Hans was young and he moved to Copenhagen. The King at the time, Frederick VI, paid for Hans to go to school. He is most famous for his fairy tales like "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Little Mermaid", but he also wrote lots of other things: plays, novels, poems and he even wrote about traveling. He never married, but children all over the world have been enjoying his fairly tales for nearly 200 years. Wow!
