page_title: The Most Incredible Thing
section_title: Publication history
hierarchical_section_title: The Most Incredible Thing / Publication history
caption_attribution_description: English: A portrait of the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. Français&#160;: Portrait de l'écrivain danois Hans Christian Andersen.
context_page_description: “The Most Incredible Thing" is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen. The story is about a contest to find the most incredible thing and the wondrous consequences when the winner is chosen. The tale was first published in an English translation by Horace Scudder, an American correspondent of Andersen's, in the United States in September 1870 before being published in the original Danish in Denmark in October 1870. "The Most Incredible Thing" was the first of Andersen's tales to be published in Denmark during World War II. Andersen considered the tale one of his best.
context_section_description: The tale was first published as “The Most Extraordinary Thing” in an English translation by Horace Scudder in the United States in The Riverside Magazine for Young People in September 1870. The Danish original appeared in Denmark in the journal Nyt Dansk Maanedsskrift a month later in October 1870. The tale was reprinted in Denmark on 30 March 1872 and again on 20 December 1874 in collections of Andersen‘s tales.
  Andersen enjoyed performing before an audience and promoted many of his tales by reading them aloud at social gatherings.  In the 1840s, the composer Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was present at such a reading in Germany and reported he was so elated and excited by the performance that he couldn't wait to thank Andersen but "jubilantly flew" at the poet exclaiming: "But you are a marvelous reader; no one reads fairy tales like you!" Many years later in the 1870s, the English author and critic Edmund Gosse had a similar perception and noted, "As soon as he spoke, yes, if he merely smiled, he genius was evident ... And as he read, everything I was looking at—the dazzling sails, the sea, the coast of Sweden, the bright sky—was set ablaze as the sun went down. It was as if nature itself were blushing with delight at the sound of Hans Christian Andersen's voice."
  Andersen managed to read aloud "The Most Incredible Thing" at least seven times within a matter of days.  The readings began before a circle of admirers at the home of the Koch family on the day the tale was finished. Over the next several days, he visited the homes of several others including the Hartmanns, the Collins, the Thieles, and the Melchiors.  Andersen used such readings to gauge the success of his compositions: the louder and longer the audience's applause, the fewer corrections he would make to the tale and the sooner the manuscript reached the publisher's office.
caption: Andersen in 1867
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