![]() Andersen was more than a little neurotic, and being buried alive was far from his only fear. The note was a fixture of Andersen’s bedside table-some say he even wore it around his neck. Dorothea “joked that he could do as he had often done, and leave a note saying ‘I only appear to be dead' beside him.” ![]() ![]() He spent his final days at the home of his friends Dorothea and Moritz Melchior in Copenhagen, and as the end neared, begged Dorothea to cut his veins after he’d breathed what appeared to be his last breath. Hans Christian Andersen suffered from taphephobia, which only became worse when he fell ill.Īccording to his biographer Jackie Wullschlager, Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen was deathly afraid of being buried alive. Taphephobia, as it is called, is not so rampant in the era of modern medical care, but for some folks in the past, it was terrifying. Once that fear takes hold of one’s consciousness, it can become an obsession. ![]() It’s not so much the fear of death as it is the fear of waking up trapped in a grave. No matter how remote the possibility, the thought of being buried alive is ghastly. ![]()
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