The benefits of living in a certain place or country is, that one can come across items in shops that are hard to find elsewhere. A few days ago there was a sale in a second hand bookshop here in Denmark, with prices for all books in the entire shop being the same, but declining every day. I happened to walk into the shop on the last day of the sale, were the price for any book had gone down to 5 kroner – (0.90 USD/ 0,70 Euro).
As one can imagine the books left in the shop were not very interesting, but there was this little, old and damaged “book”, that drew my attention. It was a work by H. C. Andersen, “Dryaden” from 1868, which – I realized later -was a first print, published during the lifetime of the famous writer.
I must immediately admit though, that the little paper-book is in a bad state. As can be seen on the pictures it is for example being hold together with some tape. Therefore its economical value is very close to nothing. But buying a first print of H.C. Andersen, for such a low price, feels good anyhow.
It has some nice details like the last sentence on the last page: “En fransk og engelsk Oversættelse ere under Arbeide.” Which means that at the time it was printed the publisher was working on a French and English translation. That seems like a good idea, to translate an H. C. Andersens work.
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The famous fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Andersen was born in Denmark in 1805, and died in 1875, and is in the English speaking world known for stories such as “The Little Match Girl“, “The Ugly Duckling“, “The Little Mermaid“, “The Emperor’s New Clothes“, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier“, and “The Princess and the Pea“. (Wikipedia)
