From the Hans Christian Andersen biography "The Life of Hans Christian Andersen. Day By Day", written by DPhil Johan de Mylius:

1829

The Actual Literary Debut
Debut as Theatre Dramatist

In this year

Adam Oehlenschläger's "Biographie" (autobiography of childhood and youth) is published as an introduction to the German edition of his collected writings (published in Breslau).

1829: The Actual Literary Debut


2 January

Fodreise (A Walking Tour from Holmen Canal to The Eastern Point of Amager in the Years 1828 and 1829) is published by HCA himself (as Reitzel would not pay enough. HCA had requested 100 rdl. but Reitzel would only pay 70). The edition of 500 copies - priced at 1 rdl. - was quickly sold. C.A. Reitzel then paid HCA 100 rdl. for the right to print a 2nd edition.

11 April

A new and slightly enlarged edition of A Walking Tour. A little giddy from the successful literary debut and from being Heiberg's protégé, HCA includes some remarks about the romanticist Carsten Hauch, which he later regretted.

1829: Debut as Theatre Dramatist


23 April

Publication of the vaudeville; Kjærlighed paa Nicolai Taarn eller Hvad siger Parterret (Love in The Tower of Nicolai or What's Said in The Rear Stalls). Vaudevilles are the fashionable genre of the day and Heiberg's favoured dramatic form.

25 April

First performance of Love in The Tower of Nicolai at the Royal Theatre. According to HCA, it was a success, although it was only performed 3 times.
Several of HCA's poems are printed in newspapers and periodicals, for example on:

12 July

The poem "Til min Moder" (To My Mother) (dated 1823) is printed in Repertorium for Moerskabslæsning, published by A.P. Liunge.

21 August

"Skjærmbræts-Billeder" (Folding Screen Pictures) (five poems) are printed in Kjøbenhavns-Posten. No. 1 is "Moderen med Barnet" (Mother and Child) ("Hist hvor Vejen slaaer en Bugt" (Yonder Where The Road Curves).

Summer 1829

Reads Heine together with law student Orla Lehmann (who later became leader of the Liberals), who HCA got to know through Fritz Petit.

30th June - 16th August

HCA goes on a summer journey. Takes the steamship Caledonia to Kallehave. Describes the ship as:

"the first steamship seen in our waters; it was cruelly taunted by the crew of every barge and named 'Splashing Malene'"(from The Fairy Tale of My Life (Mit Livs Eventyr)).

Then it's off to Møn, where he visits Anna, the sister of Laura Tønder-Lund, and her husband, Pastor P.N. Møller Holst at Hjertebjerg. From here, on 2nd June, it's on to Petersgaard, between Kallehave and Vordingborg, where he visits Henriette (Jette) Wulff's uncle, Commander Captain Christian Wulff.
Continues on through Vordingborg, Næstved and Slagelse to Funen; stays with Madame Iversen, the printer's widow, at the country house Marieshøj at Tolderlund (the country house is usually simply referred to by the location, Tolderlund) from 5th July for three weeks. Visits his mother in Odense during this time. Stays for a short time at Elvedgård on North Funen with the historian Vedel Simonsen;
On the return journey he stays with the sons of Jonas Collin at Nørager, Tissø (from approx. 27th July) upon the invitation of the owner, Counsellor Claus Christian Bang, a brother of Niels Hofman-Bang at Hofmansgave.

16 August

Return to Copenhagen.

17th and 18th September

HCA's "Brudstykke af en Udflugt i Sommeren 1829. - Odense og dens Omegn" (Extracts from an Expedition in the Summer of 1829 - Odense and Surroundings) is published in Kjøbenhavnsposten (The Copenhagen Post).

18 September

HCA reads all of F.C. Sibbern's psychological work - it must be his book Psychological Pathology from 1828, reprinted in 1885 with the title Læren om de menneskelige Følelser og Lidenskaber (The Science of Human Feelings and Passions). With this work in mind, on the night between 18th and 19th, HCA writes the poem "Døds-Øieblikket"(The Moment of Death), which is printed in Kjøbenhavnsposten (The Copenhagen Post) on 24th September.
A part of the poem reads as follows, here cited in a letter to Edvard Collin dated 19th:

"Within the stellar systems, within the most minuscule of earthly matter
I see divine thought for which words are lacking.
An eternity I observe in everything, even in my breast,
And all mist sinks below the earth's familiar coast" [...]
Oh could we but only see, down here, others as clearly
as we see ourselves, then no harm would be done! [...] -
I am so light, so blissful, so purified in my faith,
I feel a need to battle and strive, and yet a heavenly peace".

12 October

Kjøbenhavnsposten (The Copenhagen Post) publishes a Greenlandic translation of "Det Døende Barn (The Dying Child) by the missionary Knud Kjer. HCA jokes about it in a letter to Edvard Collin dated 15th June 1830, in which he mentions a certain Miss Scheel, "who is very enamoured with my poems", but not surprisingly, as;

"this is something I am quite accustomed to on Sealand, in Jutland and on Funen. Yes, I have quite possibly won many a heart in Greenland for my Dying Child".

21st October and 14th November

HCA sits "Anden Examen"(examen philologicum et philosophicum, which allows entry to university-level studies. One of the examiners was H.C. Ørsted.

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