529. HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN (1805-1875) Danish poet and author of children's tales, including "The Princess and the Pea", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Emperor's New Clothes". Excessively rare, superb content A.L.S., 4pp. 8vo., Gad's Hill Place, June 19, 1857, in Danish to Henriette Thybjerg Collin, daughter-in-law of Andersen's benefactor Jonas Collin and wife of Edvard Collin, while Andersen was staying with Charles Dickens from June 11 to July 15, 1857. In part: "...When I write to you it is the same thing as if I write to your husband [Edvard]...I suppose you have read my letter to Ingeborg Drewsen so you know about my journey to this place and yesterday I had already been with Dickens for a week. Take out Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part One, Act I, Second Scene, and you will find Henry and Falstaff speaking merrily about Gad's Hill, which is indeed the place where I am. Dickens' villa is at the site of the inn, which is the scene in Shakespeare's Falstaff, it is close to the old high road between London and Dover. On the map you will find the midpoint between Gravesend and Rochester, that is where we live, fairly high up, with the scent of clover fields, with elderberries in bloom, and the cedars of Lebanon around us...This time I find Mrs. Dickens pretty and the two daughters, Mary and Kate, are fine, talented girls. The youngest looks just like the portrait you have seen of Dickens; besides, there are four sons at home, Charles, named after his father, Walter Landor, who in a few weeks will enter the Indian Service...the two little fellows Henry Fielding and Edward Lytton Bulwer, who is five...In Boulogne, three sons are at school, Francis Jeffrey, Alfred Tennyson, and Sidney Smith...Dickens now looks a little older than the last time, but he is just as youthful and vivacious, pleasant, and cordial. Take from his works the most cordial, lively and prepossessing, make a man of it, and you have a faithful portrait of him...I understood him at once and all that he says is very clear to me, myself now I speak only English...Dickens says I speak better not only day by day, but hour by hour...even now the servants understand me...the first day I rode with Mrs. Dickens, Mary, and Kate in a coach to the Crystal Palace to the first Handel Festival, the Messiah was performed...an audience of about 12,000 had assembled...The choruses had an astonishing effect, and nervous tears came to my eyes. The Crystal Palace is a true elfin city, with streets and lanes, flower gardens and Pompeian rooms; a broad canal of white marble with real red and blue lotus blossoms ravished me; outside the fountains were playing, several hundred, I think, rainbows were shimmering over the waters, it looked like the realm of Undine...we reached London at 8pm, where the coach immediately took us to the theater to see the famous Madame [Adelaide] Ristori ... At Dickens' in the country, I spend the first two days with a Miss [Angela Burdett] Coutts, who is supposed to be one of the richest ladies in England, she has an `immense fortune' said Dickens, and [Joseph] Hambro mentioned a yearly sum...she invited me to stay in London, the last day I was there, so I did not have to be alone in Dickens' large empty house, and for one day and night I was given more magnificent quarters than any prince ever provided me with...at lunch Admiral Napier came, who sat next to me and inquired after our King and `Madam', and also the Misses Holstein. Miss Coutts took me out to her garden outside London in her coach, it was more than royal, such greenhouses I have never seen before, and I the garden itself rhododendrons were taller than me, and it commanded an enchanting view of London. Miss Coutts does very much good indeed, Dickens told me, not only does she build churches and found various institutions, but she is a noble, very respectable person. `It is one of the most important acquaintances you have made in England', said Count-Reventlow-Criminil...Wellington, the hero, was often seen in her house and was a faithful friend to her. My novel To Be or Not to Be has appeared, but I have not seen more than one English review; it was very good, only that this time my book was more for Danish or German readers, as far as its material goes, than my earlier works. And then it was called a `religious-philosophical story'...the bookseller Bentley said that he expected it to sell well in spite of its dealing with foreign material. Dickens has not yet read it as he is very busy preparing some performances for the benefit of Jerrold's widow; he would read his Christmas Carol himself...20 June... I have just come from Rochester...I am happy I did not follow Dickens to London this morning...London is horrible, rumbling, bumbling, smoke and dust, you feel as if you are stuffed into a large and working steam engine...Tell me what good is said in Copenhagen about To Be Or Not to Be! Great...I get marvelous insight into English family life, and can now already read Washington Irving without a dictionary...Special greetings to your husband [Edvard]..." Andersen penned this letter during a six-week stay at the renowned English novelist's home, having finally garnered celebration in Europe for his stories. This new-found success marked a seismic shift for the eccentric writer who grew up in an environment of poverty and misunderstanding, and had had, to this date, little success in ventures of writing and stage. In 1847, Andersen made a triumphant journey to England, which welcomed the celebrated writer of Fairy Tales enthusiastically. A decade later, in June 1857, Dickens invited Andersen, then a close friend, to visit him for a stay of two weeks. Andersen remained at the Dickens' home for six weeks, oblivious to the author's increasingly blatant attempts to persuade him to leave. Andersen's overstaying his welcome may not have been so irritating for the Dickens' if it hadn't coincided with a particularly disastrous time in the family's life: Dickens was in the process of divorcing his wife and mother to his ten children and the household was in emotional disarray. Andersen was entirely oblivious to the turbulent and upsetting goings-on in the Dickens' household. Apparently, the Dickens family grew increasingly weary of their difficult guest, who complained that the house was cold, there was not enough sugar in the tea, and that Dickens left him constantly in the charge of his sons, who harangued the socially awkward author to the point of tears. These plaints and the sheer difficulty of entertaining the demanding guest continued so much so that that Dickens wrote to a friend a month after Andersen's arrival, "We are suffering a good deal from Andersen". Additionally, after his departure, Dickens posted a note in the guest room where Andersen stayed, which read: "Hans Andersen slept in this room for five weeks - which to the family seemed AGES!" Indeed, the two writers' friendship was thereafter strained, with Dickens giving Andersen a sort of just desserts in modeling the character of Uriah Heep after him in David Copperfield. For Andersen, however, the trip was an unprecedented success and inspiration, as evinced in this ecstatic letter. He wrote an enthusiastic essay about his visit to Dickens upon his return to Denmark, and apparently never understood why Dickens failed to answer his letters thereafter. While in England, Andersen's novel To Be or Not to Be was published, to a lukewarm reception there, despite the author's optimistic perception. This optimism and joyous outpouring of his impressions of that country and its illustrious citizens are well-illustrated in this remarkable letter to Henriette Collin, daughter-in law of Jonas Collin, Sr., co-director of the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, and the wife of Edvard Collin, with whom Andersen had a particularly close relationship. Collin Sr. was a patron of the arts and had funds on behalf of King to spend on worthy artistic causes. Collin took the impoverished young Andersen under his wing when he was about 14, arranging for him to attend grammar school in the countryside after his theatrical career ended, and actually brought Andersen into his home a member of his family. His son, Edvard, to whom Andersen gives `special greetings' in this letter, was Andersen's his friend and financial advisor. Andersen was reputedly in love with Edvard who, in addition to helping Andersen financially, reportedly helped prepare his manuscripts for publication. Collin did not return Andersen's affection, and their relationship remained platonic. This unrequited love brought Andersen deep, lifelong grief. In a famous 1835 letter to Collin about the pain for his unrequited love , Andersen wrote: "This moment I long for you as if you were a lovely girl from Calabria". Despite this, Collin and Andersen corresponded for years, and Andersen bequeathed an estate to Collin upon his death in 1875. Indeed, Edvard Collin and Henriette were later buried with Andersen in Rolighed. This letter is classified as having been "lost" from the complete correspondence and therefore is of the utmost rarity. Additionally, the lot include three letters from Oluf Tybjerg, the nephew of Henriette, who came to Louisville, KY, in search of employment in 1881. The letters, from 1881, announce his employment, indicate repayment of debt, with the third adding, in a more interesting vein: "As soon as I receive some letters of H.C. Andersen from home, I will send one to Miss Blain". Eventually, Tybjerg sent the two letters, of which this is one, which was passed down through generations of the Blain family. Penned in Andersen's characteristically small, fine hand. With full separations at folds resulting in negligible paper loss. Of the utmost rarity, especially with the fine social and descriptive content. $3,000-4,000