From the Hans Christian Andersen biography "The Life of Hans Christian Andersen. Day By Day", written by DPhil Johan de Mylius:
1831
19 September
Publication of Skyggebilleder af en Reise til Harzen, det sachsiske Schweitz etc. etc., i Sommeren 1831 (Rambles in the Romantic Regions of the Hartz Mountains, Saxon Switzerland, etc. ( Reitzels publishing house pays HCA an amount of 150 rdl. for the book - "without getting burnt", as HCA writes in September 1833 to Edvard Collin. The publisher even pays the 150 rdl. in advance.
In a letter to Lorenzen, the friend from Sorø, HCA has heralded the book as a "magic lantern of the heart"(28th June). In answer to the friend's later comments about the book, HCA answers in a letter dated 7th October:
"A writer must portray the light and the dark sides of life, and there is at least as much light as darkness. - The greater the writer, the better he is able to expose Everything; it is exactly by having such a momentous impact on people's lives that Goethe is and will remain so great. There is no one-sidedness in nature, yet you would have a writer be that way inclined!"
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