Central Park

“To be born in a duck’s nest, in a farmyard, is of no consequence to a bird, if it is hatched from a swan’s egg.” --The Ugly Duckling (1844)

This bronze larger-than-life-sized figure depicts Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), Danish poet, novelist, and author of fairy tales including The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid. Sculptor Georg John Lober (1892–1961), who also created the statue of George M. Cohan (1958) in Duffy Square, shows the writer seated on a bench appearing to be reading his semi-autobiographical Ugly Duckling story to a rather attentive 2-foot-high bronze “duckling.”

The sculpture was sponsored by the Danish American Women’s Association and was first unveiled in 1955 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Andersen’s birthday. Both Danish and American schoolchildren helped raise the $75,000 needed to build the piece. To this day it continues to attract children who enjoy sitting in the writer’s lap. In 1973 the bronze cygnet was stolen, later recovered, and secured. Since 1956 the statue has served as a backdrop for children’s reading events, the best known of these storytellers is author Diane Wolkstein, who has spearheaded the summer reading program at the statue since 1966.