Andersen (1805- 1875) is a Danish writer. 1805, Andersen was born in an old attic in odense. His father, a shoemaker, died very early, and the whole family depended on his mother to wash clothes for a living.

Although Andersen lived a very poor life, he had his own lofty ideals. At first, he was determined to become an actor. At the age of fourteen, he left his hometown and relatives and came to Copenhagen alone. He overcame many difficulties in life and studied culture with strong perseverance. At first, he wanted to learn dancing and acting, but he was rejected. Later, he was taken in by a professor from a conservatory of music to learn to sing. But the next winter, because he had no money to buy clothes and shoes, he kept catching a cold, coughing and hoarse, so he had to leave the music school. But his indomitable will to engage in artistic career is unshakable. He is determined to create literature and write the injustice of the world with his own pen. He lives on the top floor of an old house and practices writing day and night. After struggling for more than ten years, I finally stepped into the literary world. Since the age of 30, he has devoted himself to the creation of children's literature, and has written 168 fairy tales all his life. For example, The Ugly Duckling, The Gatekeeper's Son, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Nightingale and The Princess on the Pea. The Little Match Girl, which is selected from the twelfth volume of Chinese for six-year primary schools, is one of them.

Andersen and the little match girl

So how did Andersen write this fairy tale?

1848, he traveled abroad. On the way, I received a letter from my friend asking him to write a story based on the three pictures sent in the letter. In one of the photos, there is a poor little girl with long blonde hair hanging over her shoulders. She looks beautiful. She has a lot of matches in her hand, and her poor eyes are wide open, as if thinking about something. Andersen looked at the picture, his eyes moist. He thought of his mother. My mother wanted to eat when she was a child. Once, when she was begging, she couldn't walk and fainted on the road. He thought of his grandmother, the only person who loved him in his childhood. After his father died, his mother remarried, so he had to live alone with his grandmother. Every evening, he sat in the corner, curled up his legs and huddled up, expecting the beggar's grandmother to come back early. As soon as the kind grandmother came home, she held him in her arms, brought him warmth and relieved his hunger. He also remembered the poor children in Qian Qian under the rule of the Danish feudal dynasty ... Thinking, thinking, he couldn't help but spread out the manuscript paper and wrote the beautiful fairy tale "The Little Match Girl" with his own personal feelings, sympathy for the poor children and hatred for the ruling class.

Andersen's fairy tales are deeply loved by the broad masses of the people and have been translated into many languages and widely circulated. He is also known as "the king of fairy tales in the world". (Excerpted from: www.srsoft.com.cn)