Andersen wrote a total of three autobiographies.
The first, called Levnedsbogen, which remained unfinished, was written as early as 1832, shortly before he set out on his grand tour (1833-34). It was only refound and published in 1926.
The second, Das Märchen meines Lebens ohne Dichtung, was written to order as volumes I-II of his collected works in the German edition which began to appear in 1847 in Leipzig.
It formed the basis for his Danish autobiography, Mit Livs Eventyr (The Fairy Tale of My Life) (1855), which was incorporated in his Danish Samlede Skrifter (Collected Works), which had begun to appear in 1853. When a 10 volume selection of his works, an 'Author's Edition', was to appear in America (1869-71), he brought Mit Livs Eventyr up to date for this edition with a number of notes about the events of each year up to and including 1867.
