Hans Christian Andersen
(April 2 1805 - August 4, 1875) Danemark
Poet and Writer
Born in Odense he is Denmark's most famous writer of novels, plays, travel books, and fairy tales. His fairy tales are among the most widely read works in world literature. His stories of make-believe have enchanted young readers around the world for generations. He wanted to be a seamstress (tailor), then an opera singer, wound up being supported by an older poet while he penned his tales, some of the earliest examples of high camp.
Andersen's love letters to men have been preserved and to a large extent published.  The most important love of his life was undoubtedly Edward Collin, but although they remained close friends all their life, Andersen's fellings for Edward were not reciprocated. Andersen, who remained unmarried, possibly never experienced genital sex with anybody, man or woman.
His fairy tale The Little Mermaid (1837) was an existential and poetic reflection and clarification of his unrequited love for his close friend Edvard Collin, the son of his benefactor - "the impossible and fatal love of a little mermaid for a prince who never really sees her, except for her art, her dancing on the small feet that hurt as if she were treading on knives". (Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History)
Andersen's infatuation with young men led to a number of sentimental friendships lasting several years, rather one-sided "love affairs", notably with Ludwig Muller, Grand-Duke Carl Alexander of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, dancer Harald Scharff and theatre manager Robert Watt.
Young Andersen was more than willing to play the role of "kept boy," but later in life he preferred the company of burly working-class men in Copenhagen. Even after his death in 1875, Andersen's reputation lived on. When writer Martin Kok was charged, in 1892, with seducing 17-year old Anders Andersen, Danish newspapers speculated that Kok himself had been corrupted as a young man by Hans Christian Andersen.
 Novels:
- The Little Mermaid (1836)
- The Ugly Duckling
- The Emperor's New Clothes
- The Princess and the Pea
- The Snow Queen
- Thumbelina
Biography:
- Jackie Wullschlager, Hans Christian Anderson - the life of a storyteller
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