Henriette Marie Kirstine Hanck was the daughter of a grammar school master in Odense, remained unwed, and lived at home all her life. Her correspondence with her childhood friend H. C. Andersen is published under the title H. C. Andersens brevveksling med Henriette Hanck.
She made her debut in 1830-1831 with a number of shorter poems, followed by the anonymously published novels Tante Anne, 1838, and En Skribentindes Datter, 1842, which takes an interesting and original look at how art and love upset the symbiosis between mother and daughter.
