Contes

2 Jan 1628 – 16 May 1703

The French author who laid the foundations for the fairy tale genre of literature. His collected "Contes des fées" (widely known as the Mother Goose stories) have been endlessly retold, most profitably by Disney. Every child knows "Cinderella", "Beauty and the Beast", "Sleeping Beauty", "Snow White", "Puss in Boots", "Tom Thumb", and "Red Riding Hood". Charles Perrault naquit a Paris le 12 janvier 1628, septieme enfant de Pierre Perrault, avocat au parlement de Paris. Apres d'excellentes etudes au college de Beauvais, rue Jean-De-Beauvais a Paris, il fut recu avocat en 1651. Il abandonna bientot apres le barreau et devint commis de son frere aine, Pierre, receveur general des finances de …

2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875

Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, to a father who claimed to be related to nobility. After school, he worked as a weaver's apprentice and as a tailor's assistant. At 14, he moved to Copenhagen to be an actor, and was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre. His career ended when his voice changed, and he decided to become a writer. He published his first story, The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave, in 1822. An acquaintance paid all expenses to send him to grammar school in Slagelse. He also attended school at Elsinore until 1827. He later admitted that his school years were the darkest and bitterest of his life. After school, Andersen resumed writing. In 1829, he started to se…