Hans Christian Andersen was born in Odense, Denmark, in 1805. His Fairy Tales, the first children's stories of their kind, which were published in instalments from 1835 until his death in 1875, have been translated into more than a hundred languages and adapted for every kind of media.

Eleanor H. Porter was an American novelist from New Hampshire, born in 1868.

Although trained as a singer, she later turned to writing stories for children and romance and adventure novels for adults.

Her most famous novel is Pollyanna, written in 1913. She wrote 15 novels and many short stories during her career. Porter died in 1920.