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PRESENTATION COPY FOR ANNA BJERRING. Nye Eventyr og Historier [Foerste Rekke]. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels, 1858. image 1
PRESENTATION COPY FOR ANNA BJERRING. Nye Eventyr og Historier [Foerste Rekke]. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels, 1858. image 2
PRESENTATION COPY FOR ANNA BJERRING. Nye Eventyr og Historier [Foerste Rekke]. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels, 1858. image 3
Lot 69

PRESENTATION COPY FOR ANNA BJERRING.
Nye Eventyr og Historier [Foerste Rekke]. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels, 1858.

21 – 29 April 2025, 12:00 EDT
Online, New York

US$3,000 - US$5,000

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PRESENTATION COPY FOR ANNA BJERRING.

Nye Eventyr og Historier [Foerste Rekke]. Copenhagen: C.A. Reitzels, 1858.
8vo (176 x 135 mm). Publisher's pictorial wrappers, front cover detached, chipping at edges.

PRESENTATION COPY OF THE SECOND PRINTING, INSCRIBED TO ANNA BJERRING, "Frøken Anna Bjerring / en ringe tak for dine venlige Lykønskninger [Hilsen ....] mig paa min fødselsdag / ærbødigt / H. C. Andersen." ["Miss Anna Bjerring / a paltry thanks for your kind congratulations [...] on my Birthday / reverently / H. C. Andersen."]

Andersen first met 25-year-old schoolteacher Anna Bjerring sometime around 1856, likely through Sophie Ørsted, daughter of another Andersen mentor, physicist Hans Christian Ørsted. Bjerring first appears in Andersen's diaries in 1857 (as "Anna in Aalborg"). In the almanac for his birthday in 1858, he notes her congratulatory letter, the first mention of Anna in the Almanac.

This is the earliest presentation inscription for Anna Bjerring, dating to the first year of their meeting. Although the two exchanged nearly 180 letters over the ensuing 18 years, almost nothing survives. When Anna passed away in 1902, she reportedly took both sides of the correspondence with her to her grave. Two letters are known to survive, and the presentation copy Andersen sent of the 3rd collection of this title in 1859 is preserved at the Andersen House, having been presented by Bjerring to an unidentified "S.B." in 1900. Remarkably, the Schiller collection offers a 3rd known example as lot xxx in this sale. A rare example of an Andersen presentation to an important correspondent in his life. See Færch, "Hans Christian Andersen's acquaintance with Miss Anna Bjerring in Aalborg," Anderseniana, Museum Odense, 2006. Nielsen 767, 768-772.

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