Story of My Life, The

New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1871. The First Substantial English Edition - With Distinguished Provenance
The Jean Hersholt Copy

ANDERSEN, Hans Christian. The Story of My Life. Now first translated into English. Author's Edition. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1871.

First American edition, and the first substantial English translation of Andersen's autobiography, with additional material extending the narrative to 1867, including his account of the Festival at Odense.

Small octavo (7 3/8 x 4 7/8 inches; 187 x 124 mm.). xii, 569, [1, blank] pp. Engraved portrait frontispiece of Andersen seated, holding a book, with original tissue-guard. Neat, early ink signature on title-page.

Publisher's original terra-cotta cloth, decoratively stamped in blind and gilt with geometric panel design, spine decorated and lettered in gilt, brown coated endpapers. Chemised in a brown cloth folder, within a quarter brown morocco over brown cloth boards slipcase, spine with five raised bands, lettered in gilt in compartments.

A fine, unusually well-preserved copy.

Provenance: the front paste-down with the gold-and-black bookplate of Jean Hersholt.

A cornerstone text for understanding the life and self-fashioning of Hans Christian Andersen, The Story of My Life stands among the most engaging literary autobiographies of the nineteenth century. Drawing upon his Danish Mit Livs Eventyr, Andersen constructs his own narrative as a kind of lived fairy tale - charting his rise from poverty in Odense to international literary fame with a mixture of candor, theatricality, and self-mythologizing insight.

This 1871 American edition is of particular importance as the first widely accessible English-language version, and notably includes expanded material bringing the account forward to 1867, absent from earlier European printings. As such, it represents the fullest contemporary statement of Andersen's own view of his life, published just four years before his death.

The association with Jean Hersholt is especially appealing. Hersholt, himself Danish-born, was one of the great collectors of Andersen, assembling an important library devoted to his compatriot. Copies bearing his bookplate are both desirable and increasingly sought after, adding a layer of cultural and collecting significance to the present example.

Copies of this edition are frequently encountered worn or rebacked; examples in such fresh original cloth, with strong gilt and sound text block, are decidedly uncommon. The present copy, further distinguished by the Hersholt provenance, ranks among the more attractive examples likely to be encountered.

A highly desirable copy of Andersen's autobiographical masterpiece - the author telling his own story, in his own lifetime, and in its fullest early English form - with the added distinction of an important Danish-American provenance.