Digte. – FIRST PRINTING OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN’S FIRST FAIRY TALE – Unique copy with original obituary notice from Danish newspaper 1875 glued onto the last blank page

Copenhagen, paa Forfatterens Forlag, 1830. 12mo in simple later half cloth with gilt title, worn but solid. (2), 136 pp. Large stain going through first part of the book (see photos) and some brownspotting throughout. The original Death Obituary of Hans Christian Andersen from Danish newspaper 1875 is glued onto the last blank page. The binding is too tight, inner hinges are week and the book is overall unpretty but acceptable and the price is set according to condition

The rare first edition of the first published collection of Andersen’s poetry containing also the first printing of any of his fairy tales “Dødningen, et fyensk Folke-eventyr” (i.e. “The Ghost” (also sometime “The Spectre”), “A Folk- Fairy Tale from Funen”). This is – according to an esteemed rare book seller colleague and Hans Christian Andersen specialist -, the first time that Andersen uses the term “Eventyr” (fairy tale), the term which came to denote the genre for which he received world-wide fame as one of the most important writers of all time. “The Ghost” was later rewritten and published for the second time in Andersen’s first fairy tale collection, “Eventyr fortalte for Børn” (PMM 299), 1835, under the title “The Travelling Companion”. As Andersen would later explain, his first fairy tale was based upon a folk tale from Funen he had heard as a child. This seminal publication lays the foundation for Andersen’s activity as an author of fairy tales. This collection furthermore contains 46 poems, 20 of which are published here for the first time (the rest were published separately in various periodicals). BFN 51.