Anniversaries, 2 April
H.C. Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen is Denmark’s best-known author. Born in Odense on the island of Funen, he had an extraordinary writing career that went from working class boy to famous writer. His father was a "free" cobbler, that is to say he was not a member of the cobblers' guild. He fought against Napoleon, and when he returned a broken man Andersen's mother, a washing woman, was forced to provide for the family as best she could until she died an alcoholic in 1833. There were few opportunities f...
Photo: Jean-Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage (2009)
Sample of authors
Duncan, Lois
Lois Duncan Steinmetz was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as the daughter of Joseph Steinmetz and his wife Lois Duncan, both of them well-known photographers. The family moved to Sarasota, Florida, where Lois grew up and graduated from high school in 1952. By that time, she was already an established writer who published her work in magazines. She began to write when she was ten, and she...