Beloved Danish author (1805–1875) best known for such classic fairy tales as “The Ugly Duckling,” “The Red Shoes,” and “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Rare autograph manuscript signed twice, “souvenir de H. C. Andersen, Paris, 26 April 1843” and “Andersen,” one page, 13 x 10, April 26, 1843. Andersen pens his four-stanza poem “The Soldier” in Danish and French. Andersen had told the English translator of this poem, one of 47 titles in his first collection of poems, published on January 2, 1830, was one of his favorites. Translated from the Danish: “The Soldier/The drums are beating with a muffled sound,/How long the way seems to yon fatal ground,/Would all were over, and he were at rest!/My heart is breaking, bursting in my breast./I had in this wide world one only friend,/’Tis he, who to his doom of death they send,/With music’s clanging strains and martial show/And I paraded with the rest must go./For the last time God’s sun doth he behold,/Soon, soon for him will all be dark and cold/And now he kneels and now his eyes they bind,/Oh may his soul eternal mercy find./The nine have fired not one without a sigh,/Eight of the whizzing balls have pass’d him by, / One only took sure aim of all the nine,/The ball that struck him in the heart was mine!” German composer Robert Schumann wrote music for this poem in 1840, while Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg set it to music in 1865. Andersen stayed in Paris from March 8 to May 8, 1843. While there, he met many writers, including Alexander Dumas père, Heinrich Heine, Victor Hugo, and Alphonse de Lamartine. He mentions writing this copy of his poem in his diary entry for “Wednesday 26 [April 1843]” In part (translated): “And wrote in Danish and French Soldaten.” Light toning and a few small tears and chips to edges, mild handling wear, and complete separation along central fold (between “C” and “Andersen” of signature; archivally reinforced from the reverse), otherwise fine condition. A one-of-a-kind item with exceptional documentation! RRAuction COA.
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