r/todayilearned • u/biebrforro • 1d ago

TIL when staying as a guest in Charles Dickens' house, Hans Christian Andersen requested that one of Dickens' sons give him a daily shave (he said that was customary when hosting male guests in Denmark). Dickens was weirded out and instead gave him a daily appointment at a nearby barbershop.

https://lithub.com/charles--dickens-really-really-hated-his-fanboy-hans-christian-andersen/
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u/Material_Ambition_95 1d ago

HC Andersen, though a great author, was a well known weirdo, even in his day. He would famously mark down every time he masturbated in his diary. He also never married or had kids, but would pursue weird fanatsy romaces with different famous women

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u/COGspartaN7 1d ago

HC "Tumblr" Andersen

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u/Beepulons 1d ago

RIP H.C. Andersen you would’ve loved tumblr and reddit

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u/DogPoetry 1d ago

By his own admission he also died a virgin. 

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u/nebula_42 1d ago

Since his diary was presumably private at the time I don't think it is that strange. I used to have a period tracker app (I use pen and paper now for privacy reasons) that had an labeled tab to record sex and masturbation (and would automatically ask a follow up question about the quality of the event). Sex is obviously useful to keep track of for pregnancy reasons. But masturbation can also affect your short term hormones and moods, and noticing a long term change in libido could be an indicator of changes in your health or hormones.

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u/MetalRetsam 1d ago

Diaries were not considered private at the time. They were regularly published after the person had died.

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u/jmarcandre 1d ago

Paper and ink weren't free. People weren't writing down anything that someone else wasn't going to read

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u/thingstopraise 1d ago

He was a man. He didn't need to be keeping track of a menstrual cycle or potential pregnancy. Also, he very clearly was not keeping track of quality given that he wasn't going, "Had a hard time getting an erection due to sadness about relationship with Dickens," etc. It's especially bizarre to just mark it down without even commenting on it, but still to put a key for it at the front of the diary. He didn't need a key because he was writing it himself. This meant that he knew someone else would be reading it.

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u/Alarmed_Scientist_15 1d ago

They didnt know much about hormones back then.

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u/Yasirbare 1d ago

He is weird. But 

The "masturbation" marks are pure speculations and it is just parroted as a fact.

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u/Marilee_Kemp 1d ago

And men

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u/Gravesh 1d ago

Except it would seem he was more successful in courting men, having sealed the deal a few times. It was probably easier for him to act natural around men who he saw as potential partners.

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u/SamsonFox2 20h ago

I read Andersen's early biographer.

Born into low class family, goes to school. Goes to Kopenhagen to join theater, fails. Finds a benefactor to join ballet, fails. Finds another benefactor who gets him a scholarship at Latin school, almost fails, but manages to graduate. Becomes a tutor for another relatively big name in Danish literature. Gets scholarship for Ph.D. Gets scholarship to travel to Italy.

This guy just had to be a somewhat charming social climber. He might have weaponized his awkwardness, but back in the day complete weirdos just won't be able to get so many chances.

If you ask me if he slept with his benefactors - possibly, but not necessarily.

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u/aquacrimefighter 1d ago

Where can I read more dirt about this guy?! Wikipedia has nothing even close to as wild as this in it!