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artistically, socially, and culturally, Hans Christian Andersen was a mold-breaker

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"The Fairy Tale of My Life", autobiography

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described himself as a bog-plant which had its roots deeply anchored in mire and mud

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but which reached up and stretched for the light and the sun

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born in Odense in 1805

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moved from being a poor, working-class boy to being a famous author

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became quite famous but never felt fame

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imagination, Christian faith

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portrays opposites

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his work innovations of genre

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just as his social life contained considerable breakings of existing molds

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fell in love with many women

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poor most of his love into his writing

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never able to find inner rest in outer reality

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highly enthusiastic about modern technology

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steam engine

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electromagnetism

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telegraphy

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traveled in a Europe that was becoming modern

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wrote with both delight and fear

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"to travel is to live"

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not only referring to outer journeys

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but traveling as a form of existence in life, always moving forward, changing, experiencing

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a restless person, a searching artist who did not settle down or create one home for himself

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many homes

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home was the artistic universe and the journey itself

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he traveled all over Europe time and time again

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something that is reflected in his novels, travel accounts, and fairy tales

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He visited counts, kings and artists, locations and landscapes, because he was full of an insatiable thirst for experiences, often falling in love with unattainable women, and a restless longing for the inner balance he probably found in his art, but never wholly in his life

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he wished to be acknowledged like a bog-plant who stretched up towards the light

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and throughout his life he did rise up from his meek beginnings and became famous and admired, even wealthy

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yet he never managed to feel that he had gained complete recognition and fame

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but he never felt he had arrived at the point where he could feel at peace