Carl Ewald

Born on October 15, 1856, in Schleswig, he became a Danish novelist, satirist, journalist, and translator. He is especially remembered for his fairy tales, many of them inspired by nature, which helped make him a distinctive voice in Scandinavian literature around the turn of the twentieth century.

Before fully turning to writing, he studied in Copenhagen and also worked as a forester. That background seems to fit his fiction well: many of his best-known tales pay close attention to animals, plants, and the small dramas of the natural world, often with a lively, thoughtful, and slightly mischievous tone.

He died on February 23, 1908. Though not as widely known today as some of his contemporaries, his work has endured through translations and later collections, and readers still return to his stories for their charm, intelligence, and unusual way of looking at nature.