ANDERSEN HANS CHRISTIAN: (1805-1875) Danish author, best remembered for his literary fairy tales. A fine pair of autograph fair copy manuscript verses signed ('H. C. Andersen') by Andersen, one page, large oblong 4to (approximately 13 x 10.5”, 32.5 x 26 cm), Paris, 26^th April 1943, in Danish and French. To the left side of the page Andersen has penned his verse Soldaten ('The Soldier') in Danish, the four-verse work of four lines each, part of a song cycle, commencing 'Med daempede Hvirvler Trommerne gaae/ Ak, skal vi da aldrig til Stedet naae/ At hank an faae Ro i sin Kiste!/ Jeg troer mit Hjerte vil briste' (Translation: 'Our steps keep time with the muffled drum/ How slow it seems, and how long the march/ O, that he was at peace and everything done/ My heart is pounding'). To the right side of the page the author has penned a French translation of his verse, headed Le Soldat ecrite d'Andersen. Signed and dated by Andersen at the foot of the page. Manuscript verses by Andersen are extremely rare and highly sought after, and the present example is particularly charming. Some light staining and a few small, minor tears to the edges and with a vertical fold to the centre with neat splitting to the upper and lower edges and the whole reinforced with a thin strip of light tape to the verso. G

Hans Christian Andersen visited Paris on eight occasions during his lifetime and it was his second visit in 1843 (during which time he penned the present verses) that was perhaps the most important to him personally as he purposefully made it his ambition to meet French writers and artists, and thus succeeded in being accepted into the Parisian literary community.

It is more than likely that the present verses were written at the request of one such member of the literary circles in Paris; we know that Andersen penned two similar verses on the same day, 26^th April 1943, in the album amicorum of the poet and Romanticist Alfred de Vigny (1797-1863) and his wife Lydia.