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American History

Wild Kinks and Perversions of 20 Influential Historical Figures

Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky - 1706
Benjamin Franklin. New York Post

Hans Christian Andersen. The Guardian

11. The author of “The Ugly Duckling” was addicted to pleasuring himself and writing about it

Danish author Hans Christian Andersen (1805 – 1875) penned plays, poems, novels, travel books, and autobiographies, but his specialty was literary fairy tales. His works in that genre, which include The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling, are among the most widely translated writings in the world, and have been enjoyed by generations of children around the world. The pleasure he brought to millions of children is in stark contrast to Andersen’s own childhood, which was miserable, marred by dire poverty, and a homeliness that made him an object of bullying and teasing. Indeed, The Ugly Duckling was based on his Andersen’s childhood.

As an adult, Andersen was addicted to touching himself, and when not doing that, he liked to talk with prostitutes – and then rush back home to masturbate. A celibate, Andersen not only pleasured himself a lot, he also kept meticulous records of his “personal endeavors”, describing and listing them in his diary with a pair of plus signs (++), with sample descriptive entries reading: “When they left, I had a doubly sensuous ++“. In Paris, he liked to visit prostitutes and talk with them, then rush back to his hotel to put more ++ entries in his diary.

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A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.

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