Hans Christian Andersen was a storyteller for children of all ages, but he was also a critical journalist with great enthusiasm for science; an existential thinker; a travel writer; a passionate novelist; a paper cut-out artist; a neurotic hypochondriac; and a man with intense, but frustrated sexual desires. Andersen propagated myths about his life, but this new biography uncovers much about this man that has never been revealed before. This startling and immensely readable, definitive new biography, by Danish scholar Jens Andersen, is essential to a full understanding of the man whose writing has influenced the lives of readers young and old for centuries.