Note 22 — HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN[17]

For verification of this statement I may refer to his indignant letter à propos of the statue that was to be raised to him in Copenhagen, in which he was represented surrounded by listening children: "None of the sculptors," he wrote, "have known me; none of their sketches indicate that they have seen what is characteristic in me. Never could I read aloud when anybody was sitting behind me or close up to me; far less if I had children on my lap or on my back, or young Copenhageners lying all over me. It is a façon de parler to call me 'the children's poet.' My aim has been to be the poet of all ages; children could not represent me."