Hans Christian Andersen wrote down two things, children stories and records of every time he masturbated. Thankfully, the two never overlapped. In his professional life, the man behind fairytales like “The Little Mermaid” and “The Snow Queen” remained pure. Outside of that, he challenged to contain his sexual urges. To control his desires, he masturbated with such regularity that he developed “penis sores.” Debauched accounts of every instance of onanism filled his diaries.
Outside of chronic masturbation, his life was remarkably chaste. Like his titular creation, Andersen considered himself an ugly duckling. Terribly afraid of sex, he could only fantasize about unreciprocated crushes on both men and women. He likely died a virgin. The closest he came to having sex was when he hired prostitutes. Even that transaction was still chaste. They were only employed to talk to him. When the conversation ended, he excused himself to, as Elsa would say, “let it go”.
