Hans Christian Andersen

Andersen met his lifelong friend the physicist Ørsted while still a student. Thorvaldsen was one of his closest friends, as was Hartmann, a collaborator on several works. He met Bjørnson in Rome, and Balzac, Dumas, Heine and Hugo in Paris. Schumann and he fascinated each other (Schumann setting his words to music), but an attraction to Liszt was tempered by the composer’s showmanship. Wagner deeply impressed him; Brahms he found rather repellant. He and Gade visited regularly. Dickens invited him to stay, but the ‘bony bore’ overstayed his welcome, supposedly inspiring the character Uriah Heep.