The Dawn of Children’s Literature: 19th Century Pioneers

In the early 19th century, Hans Christian Andersen traveled Europe collecting and publishing fairy tales. Andersen is of course known for his great achievement, The Little Mermaid, which is still today a beloved story. The heroine of the story is herself memorialized in a statue in Anderson’s native Copenhagen. Some of Andersen’s other stories that have made a lasting mark on literature are “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” “The Snow Queen,” and “Thumbelina.” The Brothers Grimm also traveled the continent at this time, collecting the grittier versions of the fairy tales that made them famous.

Swiss writer Johann David Wyss published his seminal work The Swiss Family Robinson in 1812. The novel, one of the first of its kind, was written with the goal of teaching children the importance of self-sufficiency while also entertaining them with a rousing tale of adventure.

During this same time period, E.T.A. Hoffmann published his Kinder-Märchen collection of stories. The book contained the perennial Christmas classic “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” notable for it’s imagination and fanciful plot. While magic had long been present in literature for children, this story blew open the doors in terms of possibility for wonder.

And yet, the golden age of children’s literature was still yet to come.