On this day in 1822, seventeen-year-old Hans Christian Andersen enrolled in school, taking his place in a second form classroom of eleven-year-olds. Andersen was born in the slums of Odense, Denmark, and his parents -- his father a cobbler, his mother a washerwoman -- were too poor and protective to provide their only child with much education. Andersen had spent some time in school, but he was odd-looking and a loner, interested mostly in reading stories and sewing clothes for the characters in his toy theater. When his father died in 1816, Andersen dropped out of school entirely with the idea of earning money or learning a trade ... FULL STORY »
