The stories in this set of 4 books were translated into English directly from the original Danish in order to preserve the original tone of the stories as accurately as possible. They were translated by R. P. Keigwin and published by Flemsted, which is based in Andersen's hometown of Odense, Denmark. Most of the illustrations are recreations of the original drawings by Vilhelm Pedersen, Andersen's own original choice of illustrator. Each book measures 4" x 5-3/4". The dust jackets have seen some wear and tear, especially volume 3 where the inside front flap has torn loose. However, the hardcovers, the bindings, and all of the pages are in very good condition. First published in the 1950's, these editions were printed in 1960, except volume 3 which was printed in 1959.