Jean Hersholt 1886-1956 was a Danish actor who emigrated tothe United States, making himself a career in Hollywood as from1913. He was an avid collector of Andersen editions, and amongother things he translated Hans Christian Andersen''s fairy talesand stories in the excellent edition The Complete Andersen.
By several people, Hersholt''s Andersen-translation for theEnglish languaged world is rated as the standard translation, beingone of the best.
Hersholt felt deeply connected to Andersen''s world and hasapproached the matter rather originally. As appears from thebibliographies on the Hans Christian Andersen literature, Hersholtwrote several articles on Andersen and he also edited TheAndersen-Scudder-Letters in 1948.
The Complete Andersen includes first prints they had neverbeen printed in Danish, either of no less than three fairy tales:Folks say .., The Poor Woman and the little Canary Bird, andUrbanus, the edition also includes The Pigs from the travel book InSweden, the whole Picture Book without Pictures, which is oftenplaced among the travel books, and the novel Lucky Peer which mayalso with all reason be called a fairy tale novel. Normally, LuckyPeer is ranged as a novel.
The list of works translated by Hersholt includes the original156 printed in Andersens own time plus the fairy tales found in hispapes - and published after his death: The Court Cards, Croak!,Danish Popular Legends, God can never die, The Penman, TheTalisman, and This Fable is Intended for You.
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he Gardener and the Noble Family
bout four miles from the city stood an old manor house withthick walls.towers,and pointed gables.Here lived,but onlyin the Summer seaS0n a rich and noble family. Of all thedifferent estates they owned,this was the best and the mostbeautiful:on the outside it looked as if it had just been cast in a,foundrv.and the inside was made for comfort and ease..Fhefamily coat of arms was carved in stone over the gate;beautitUllscs climbed about the arnls and the balconies;the COHrtyardwas covered with grass:there were red thorn and whitth1I,and manyflowers even outside the greenhouse.
Thc oWncrs of the manor house also had a very skillful gardener.It was aoleasure to see the flower garden,thc orchard,and the vegetable garden,A partLf thc manors original old garden was still thereconsisting of a icw box―treehedCes Cut S0 that they formed crowns and pyramids. Behind these stoo.d two old,htv trees,almost always without leaves,and one might easily think that a stormor.aterspout had scattered great lumps of dirt on their branches;bu;each lump.was a birds nest.Here,from time immemorial.a screaming swarin ot crows an.drooks had built their nests:it was a regular bird town,and the birds were tnoWners,thc manors oldest family―thc real lordship!Thc people below mean!nothing to them:they tolerated these crawling creatures,even if every now andthcn tcv shot with their guns,making the birdsbackbones shiver,so that everybird flew up in fear and cried,Rak!Rak!
The gardener often spoke to the noble family about cutting down the Old tr,ee,s; did not look well,and by taking them away they might also get nd theshriacking birds,which then would probably look for another place.But the fa,milydid not want to give up either the trees or the swarm of birds;that was somethingthe manOr C0uld not lose. something from the olden times,which should never beforgotten.
Wda;Whv.those trees are thc birdsheritage by this time,so let them keep them,mv good Larsen!Larsen was the gardeners name,but that 1s oi very tittleenCe to this story.
Haent you space enough to work in ittle Larsen?Have you not the flowergarden.the greenhouse,the orchard,and the vegetable garden Ycs.those he had,andhc cared for them;he kept them in order and cultivatedthcm with affection and ability,and that the noble family knew;but they did―ntconccal from him that they often saw flowers and tasted fruits in other peopleshomcs that surpassed what they had in their garden,and that made the gardenersad.for he always wished to do his best and really did his best.He was~oodhearted and a gOOd and faithful worker.一 One dav the nOb.1e family sent for him and told him,very kindly,that the daybefore.at some distinguished friends home,they had eaten apples and pears thatwere so juicy and so well flavored that they and all the other guests had expressedthcir admiration.It was doubtful if the fruits were native,but theyought to beimposed and grown here.provided thc climate would permit it.It was known thathad been bought from the finest fruit dealer in thc city,and it was decided
to go therand find ou.where thesepearcal leand then order some slips for grafting The gardener knew the fruit dealer