Hans Christian Andersen

 

Hans Christian Andersen was born on April 2^nd, 1805.  Walter Scott was 34 at the time.  The older of the two authors was influential on the younger, as Andersen points out in his autobiography, "The Fairy Tale of my Life".  Andersen mentions Scott approximately a dozen times in that work.  In one section, he discusses a game he played, which he likened to a child calling a doll by the name he likes best: ‘I loved William Shakespeare and Walter Scott, and of course I loved also myself.  I took therefore my name Christian, and so I assumed the fictitious name “William Christian Walter”.’