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PRESENTATION COPY TO ANNA BJERRING. ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN. 1805-1875. Eventyr og Historier. Ny Samling. Copenhagen: Reitzels, 1872. image 1
PRESENTATION COPY TO ANNA BJERRING. ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN. 1805-1875. Eventyr og Historier. Ny Samling. Copenhagen: Reitzels, 1872. image 2
PRESENTATION COPY TO ANNA BJERRING. ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN. 1805-1875. Eventyr og Historier. Ny Samling. Copenhagen: Reitzels, 1872. image 3
Lot 70

PRESENTATION COPY TO ANNA BJERRING.
ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN. 1805-1875.
Eventyr og Historier. Ny Samling. Copenhagen: Reitzels, 1872.

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

US$2,000 - US$3,000

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PRESENTATION COPY TO ANNA BJERRING.

ANDERSEN, HANS CHRISTIAN. 1805-1875. Eventyr og Historier. Ny Samling. Copenhagen: Reitzels, 1872.
8vo. Publisher's pictorial wrappers, spine perished.

PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED TO THE HALF-TITLE FOR ANNA BJERRING, "Frøken Anna Bjerring og / hendes Kjære Moder en venlig / Foraarshilsen fra / H. C. Andersen" ["Miss Anna Bjerring and / her dear mother a friendly / Spring-greeting from / 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 Aaalborg"). In the almanac for his birthday in 1858, he notes her congratulatory letter, the first mention of Anna in the Almanac.

Although Andersen and Bjerring 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. See preceding lot xxx for the only other known Andersen presentation copy for Bjerring. See Færch, "Hans Christian Andersen's acquaintance with Miss Anna Bjerring in Aalborg," Anderseniana, Museum Odense, 2006. Nielsen 1017.

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