Ten of Andersen’s tales from his later years were first published in the American “Riverside Magazine”.
A reality and a mythical country
America in Andersen’s lifetime existed both as a reality, a place on a globe or a map, and as a mythical country. Andersen wrote: ‘What a pity that America lies so far away from here!’ But it was this very distance that enabled this country on the edge of the world to retain its wonder and mystery. The odyssey was dangerous and long; few attempted it except from a great spirit of adventure or, as in most cases, out of despair and desperation. Those who returned to their original homes did not always adhere strictly to the truth about the places where they had been; heroes seldom belittle the deeds which give them their title. Yet more important was the fact that there was some reality to the claim that America was fairy-land. Although gold was not to be picked up on the streets, it was to be found in streams and rivers, and many beggars became as wealthy as princes. Maybe there were no giants beyond the endless ocean, but there were giant trees which made the oaks of Denmark look like saplings. In the poetic essay ‘The Twentieth Century Muse’ Andersen tries to guess in which place the Muse might choose to live: would it be ‘California, that fairy-tale land, where the redwood lifts its head high above any other living thing?’
Andersen spoke of the mythical America when it suited him, but he also knew the real America, as he reveals in the same essay: ‘that continent that Columbus discovered; that land of liberty, whose original inhabitants were hunted down like wild animals, where Africans were turned into beasts of burden, the land from which we hear The Song of Hiawatha ?