2002 Jackie Wullschlager

I will always remember the warm, enthusiastic welcome I received as a foreigner daring to have written about Hans Christian Andersen, when I arrived in Odense in 2002. Receiving the award did not shape my biography of the writer, because I had already finished it, but the experience did give me the confidence and enhanced insight – based on conversations with many Danish experts there – to edit a new translation of Andersen’s tales which came out in England and America in 2004 and has been popular ever since. The sense I gained in Odense of Andersen as a Dane who was also a citizen of the world influenced my selection of the tales for this volume, and continues to shape my understanding of his writing. Thank you to you all!

Jackie Wullschlager