About the Authors
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. In 1829 his first book was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. His stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and Disney cartoons, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world.
Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist, and mythologist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm’s law (linguistics), the co-author with his brother Wilhelm of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm and the editor of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Andrew Lang (1844–1912), Scottish man of letters educated at the Edinburgh Academy, St. Andrews, and Balliol College, Oxford, became a prolific and versatile London journalist. He took a leading part in the controversy with Max Müller and his school about the interpretation of mythology and folk tales. He published several volumes of verse and several solid contributions to the study of the philosophy and religion of primitive man. He also wrote the four-volume History of Scotland, A History of English Literature, and many fairy-tale collections, as well as works on Homer, Joan of Arc, Scott, Lockhart, Mary Stuart, John Knox, Prince Charlie, Tennyson, and others.
Aesop (620–560 BC) has been known in history and in legend since the sixth century BC, or earlier, as a gifted Greek storyteller and the author of the world’s best-known collection of fables. A Phrygian slave, there is speculation that he was freed as a result of his wit. Though little is known about his life, his remarkable wisdom regarding human nature, conveyed through his fables, has brought him great renown.
Charles Perrault (1628–1703) was a French author and intellectual. Known as a founding writer of the fairy tale genre, he rewrote numerous folk tales, including Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Blue Beard, and Puss in Boots. His stories, which continue to enjoy worldwide acclaim, have been adapted to opera, ballet, theater, and film.