YOUNG HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

This biography by the author of other Danish stories (see The Good Luck Tree, and Nils. The Island Boy) has been written with the touches of sympathy and sentiment one attaches to Andersen and should go well in this, his anniversary year. Short, episodic chapters take young Hans through the happy and sad events of his life. They form quite vivid pictures of the experiences that became so integral to himself and his stories- his cobbler father, the poor people of Odense and its beauties, the inability to get along at school, the shock of a cruel stepfather, the imagination that found a grain of loveliness and a grain of ugliness in everything. Reaching into manhood and first failures and successes, the account is less matter-of-fact than we would have it, but should prove gratifying to most who know and love the tales.