Description

8vo. 1 blank f., (6), 183, (1) pp. Contemporary half calf with giltstamped spine and green marbled covers. Publisher's original printed front wrapper bound within. First edition of Andersen's sixth and final novel, "Lucky Peer". With a fine inscription to the daughter of his benefactor and friend, the great Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted: "Kaere Froeken Mathilde Ørsted! Forrige Fredag skulde alle-rede 'Lykke Peer' have bragt Hislen og Lykoenskning, nu kommer han een Uge for seent, men han faaer vel nok Lov til at blive i Stuen? Erboedigst H. C. Andersen En 11 November 1870" ("Dear Miss Mathilde Oersted! 'Lucky Peer' should have presented his greetings and congratulations last Friday; now he arrives with a week's delay, but surely he still will permitted to stay in the your sitting room? Yours very sincerely, H. C. Andersen, November 11, 1870"). Hans Christian Oersted (1777-1851), famous as the discoverer of electromagnetism, was one of the few notable men of Danish society who advanced H. C. Andersen from the very beginning. - Binding slightly rubbed, but altogether a fine copy. Provenance: 1) Mathilde Ørsted; 2) Bent W. Dahlström, Danish publisher (his bookplate); 3) collection of Pierre Bergé (his bookplate). - Nielsen, Bibliografi, 1942, no. 1006. Bork, no. 76. R. Boyer, Histoire des littératures scandinaves, 1996.