Hans C. Andersen, the Danish author, was born on 2nd April at Odense in Funen. His father, a poor shoemaker, was devoted to reading and thinking, but died when Hans was a child. His mother was a simple, uneducated woman, who after her second marriage sank still deeper into poverty and took to drinking in her old age, Andersen, who loved her dearly, has told her story in "She was Worth Nothing". His grandmother did her best to spoil the boy, who was given to daydreaming. After a very meager education in a pauper-school it was intended to apprentice him to a tailor, but as a fortune-teller had foretold that Odense would one day-be illuminated in his honor, his mother permitted him to go to Copenhagen, where he tried to become an actor or a singer, but cut a pitiable figure, fortunately, kind people supported him. Thanks to the support and guardianship of Jonas Collin, an influential councilor of state, Andersen at the age of 17 was sent to school. In 1828 he matriculated and at once began to write, mostly plays and poems. In the 30s he traveled abroad twice. From 1835 his fairy tales began to appear in installments, and were soon translated into almost all the European languages, and gained for him a world reputation. The full acknowledgement of his, own countrymen, for which he longed so much, came much later. But it came at last. He lived to see Odense, his native town, illuminated in his honor as prophesied.