"With the passing of each year, Andersen's genius brought forth new ‘wonder stories’, and the fame he had so desperately craved and striven for became a reality. Little did he know in the spring of 1835, when he all but had to beg his publisher to accept these remarkable tales, that one day they would make him immortal. And little did the critics, nearly all of whom advised him to give up his ‘experiment’ and devote himself to his other writings, ever dream that they would live to see him gain world acclaim for these tales.

For almost a hundred years now, generation after generation has been brought up on Andersen's stories. Take the English-speaking world, for instance. Since the first appearance of Andersen's Fairy Tales in London and New York, in 1846, over seven hundred different editions, including dozens of varied translations, illustrated by more than a hundred different artists, have been published in the United States alone.

Indeed, Andersen's stories will live on as classics – as much part of our civilization as the two primary educational factors, reading and writing." (Jean Hersholt, p. 27).

The six little pamphlets together, printed in different years, all have their own title pages, half-titles, contents, etc. and the volumes where they are bound together (two volumes of three pamphlets each) have their own title pages, half-titles and contents at the beginning. Therefore, the book binders almost always removed several of the "extra" leaves in the individual pamphlets, as they seemed superfluous in a collected binding. It was never the intention of the publisher that the single half-titles, title pages or tables of contents be preserved. However, due to the many different leaves that were deemed "superfluous" or not, all existing sets of these two little volumes have their individual mix-up of half-titles, titles, and table of contents. Thus, no copies are known to exist with all leaves present. In some cases, like ours, some of the leaves have been supplied in facsimiles. In our case, most of the facsimiles are of such high quality that it is very difficult to determine that they are in fact facsimiles.

"During Andersen's lifetime 162 of his Fairy Tales were published, but the scarcest and most difficult to obtain are these six little pamphlets. We do not know exactly how many, or how few, copies were printed, but we do know that no copy with all the title pages and tables of contents has ever been offered for sale by any dealer or at any auction. To my knowledge, only five or six complete copies of the first printings (1835-1842) still exist. Even the second printing of the six pamphlets in their entirety (1842-1847) is exceedingly scarce and difficult to obtain." (Jean Hersholt).

Here follows a collation including mention of issues, lacunae, and facsimiles:

Vol. I:

VIII, (2) pp. (complete - being: Joint half-title ("Eventyr for Børn"), joint title page (dated 1837) for the three parts, preface ("Til de ældre Læsere"), Contents-leaf for all three parts). DUE TO THE PRESENT LEAVES BEING BOUND IN, THE SEPARATE HALF-TITLES, TITLES, AND CONTENTS-LEAVES WOULD NOT BE EXPECTED TO BE BOUND IN, AS THESE 8 LEAVES SUBSTITUTE THOSE FOR THE SEPARATE ISSUES. Thus, the leaves supplied in facsimile are to be considered extra.

First Part: Half-title and title page supplied in facsimile. 61 pp. No table of contents (as the joint table of contents is present at the beginning). Second issue, 1842.

Second Part: Half-title and title page supplied in facsimile. 76 pp. No table of contents. First, 1835.

Third Part: Half-title and title page supplied in facsimile, 60 pp. No table of contents. First issue, 1837.

Vol. II:

3 leaves supplied in what we suppose are facsimiles (it is very difficult to determine): Joint title page, dedication-leaf (for Mrs. Heiberg), contents-leaf for all three parts.

First Part: Half-title, title page, 58 pp. and table of contents. Second issue, 1846.

Second Part: (no half-title present), title page, 53pp. (pp.47-48 in facsimile) and table of contents. Second issue, 1847.

Third Part: (no half-title present), title page, 49 pp., (no table of contents present). Second issue, 1847.

BFN: 266; Hersholt: 23; PMM: 299.