Short answers, pulled from the story.
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author born in Odense on the 2nd of April 1805 and died on the 4th of August 1875. Though he wrote plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
Hans Christian Andersen wrote 156 fairy tales across nine volumes. They have been translated into more than 125 languages.
Hans Christian Andersen's most famous fairy tales include "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Little Mermaid," "The Nightingale," "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Red Shoes," "The Princess and the Pea," "The Snow Queen," "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Match Girl," and "Thumbelina."
Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, on the 2nd of April 1805. His mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter, was an illiterate washerwoman, and at 14 he moved to Copenhagen to seek work as an actor.
Hans Christian Andersen met Charles Dickens in June 1847 at a party hosted by the Countess of Blessington in England. In 1857 Andersen stayed at Dickens' home at Gads Hill Place for five weeks, after which Dickens gradually stopped all correspondence.
Hans Christian Andersen fell out of his bed in early 1872 and never fully recovered, and he soon showed signs of liver cancer. He died on the 4th of August 1875 at the age of 70 in a country house called Rolighed near Copenhagen.
Hans Christian Andersen's birthday, the 2nd of April, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day. The year 2005, the bicentenary of his birth, was designated "Andersen Year" in Denmark and celebrated around the world.