Dato: 30. august 1874
Fra: H.C. Andersen   Til: Gibson Peacock
Sprog: dansk, engelsk.

Copenhagen, Aug. 30 1874

Dear Sir, I beg you to accept my cordial thanks for your kind letter, and to bear in the same kind spirit what I have to say in reply. Several American papers have, on the occasion of my late illness, from which I have just recovered, explained to their readers the outer conditions under which I am living, and have impressed upon young and old the "debt", in which, according to the flattering expression, they are standing to me as the author of "Fairy Tales and Stories." I am further told that general subscription in my favor has been started in the Union. You, my unknown friend, have sent me some of the contributions offered.

I am deeply moved by the spirit of love and sympathy in which the movement has originated. It has for many years been my delight and my happiness that my tales have found readers so far beyond the boundaries of my own small country and of my little-known mother tongue, and that they have found their way all over the world. For none of the blessings of Providence sent to me I feel more deeply grateful than for the boon of having been able to impress numerous children's minds, and to deposit in the hearts of thousands and thousands again, germs of, as I fondly hope, something noble and good. I am intensely moved by, and sincerely appreciate, the feelings of love and gratitude expressed toward me. I doubly value them because they are coming to me after a severe and protracted malady, and in a state of supposed distress. A gift of love tendered to me under such circumstances I cannot and will not refuse. Great or small, such a gift is bearing a stamp rendering it dear to my heart. From the bottom of my soul I send to the dear little ones my greeting and my thanks.

But I am owing it, at the same time, to myself and to the nation to which I belong to discard a possible misunderstanding. i am still a feeble convalescent and almost approaching seventy; but I am suffering no want. My country is not one in which poets are left starving or in distress. Without being in the service of the state, I receive from the public Treasury an annual salary, offering me a modest but honorable competency. From my authorship I derive a further income, and though it is true that almost no pecuniary reward has accrued to me from the numerous translation of my works into foreign languages, still I have now and then got some salary, as, for instance, from America, for the so-called "Author's Edition". My sympathizing friends beyond the sea are, therefore not to think of me as a poor old derelict poet, living in care for his daily bread, and unable to nurse his enfeebled frame. In this respect, also, God has been gracious to me, and loving friends are around me. Even now many a joy is gladdening my heart, not the least of which is that in the far distant great America many dear children are breaking their saving-box to share its contents with their old friend, the story-teller, whom the believe to bin in want. It is a fresh leaf in the fairy-tale of my life. But this I must declare, that I cannot accept any individual gift sent to me. However well intended, such a gift receives a character alike inconsistent with the wishes of the offer and with my own dignity. What would be to me an honor and a precious proof of attachment if offered to me from the youth of America as a whole, is becoming a painful charity if dribbling in as contributions from individuals, and, where I would would fain feel proud and grateful, I am exposed to feeling humiliated.

You have, my dear Sir, expressed so very kind sympathies for me, pray bring this statement from me to the knowledge of your readers, and I hope that your honorable colleges all about the great Union will do me the favor of equally publishing these lines. I remain, dear Sir, with kind regard, yours very truly.

Hans Christian Andersen

To the editor of Evening Bulletin, Philadelphia.

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