253 books for « kierkegaard soren »Edit

‎Le Droit de mourir pour la vérité. Le Génie et l?apôtre‎

‎Chez le traducteur Broché 1935 In-8, (19x12 cm), broché, 100 pages, non coupé, traduit du danois par P.-H. Tisseau ; pliures sur le dos, bon état. Livraison a domicile (La Poste) ou en Mondial Relay sur simple demande.‎

‎Discours chrétiens : Les soucis des païens - Sentiments dans la lutte des souffrances - Les Pensées qui blessent... pour édifier - Discours pour la Communion‎

‎Delachaux et Niestlé Broché 1952 In-8 (14 x 21 cm), broché, 270 pages ; traces et rousseurs sur les plats, intérieur bruni, par ailleurs assez bon état général. Livraison a domicile (La Poste) ou en Mondial Relay sur simple demande.‎

‎Einübung im Christentum.‎

‎9. (v. ?) Bdn. Jena, Diederichs, 1912. 8°. 243 S. O-Hln.‎

‎Aus der Reihe: Gesammelte Werke. Übersetzung durch H. Gottsched. Einband berieben und bestossen. Textanstreichungen.‎

‎Guds Uforanderlighed. En Tale. Af S. Kierkegaard. - [MAGNIFICENT COPY - PRESUMABLY KIERKEGAARD'S OWN]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1855. 8vo. 22 pp., (1 blank f.). Original gift-binding of the black glitted paper with single gilt lines to spine. Spine worn, slightly restored, and with a bit of loss of paper. Boards with a little rubbing and wear along edges. A bit of brownspotting internally. With the exlibris of both Georg Nygaard and J.H. Groth-Andersen to inside of front board and with Georg Nygaard’s neat hand-written pencil-inscription to front fly leaf stating, in Danish, that “This book is one of / Søren Kierkegaard’s / complimentary copies. / Given to me by / editor Frejlif Olsen / October 1910 / Georg Nygaard”. Also a neat pencil-annotation from a later owner to inside of back board stating that this is Kierkegaard’s personal copy and the only known copy in a gift-binding, referencing the auction catalogue, no. 2186. There is also a laid-in note in the same hand explaining that at the auction, there was merely one copy of this title and that no presentation-copies of the present work are known to exist.‎

‎One of the extremely rare gift-copies, either a presentation-copy given by Kierkegaard to one of his dedicatees, or the copy he had in his possession, when he died. It seems likely as explained by the previous owner that this will have been Kierkegaard’s own copy, i.e. no. 2186 of the auction catalogue. If not, it is the only presentation-copy of this work known to exist. No matter what, this is arguably the best copy of the present title that one can find. “The Changelesness of God” constitutes Kierkegaard’s final separate publication and the final work of the separately published pamphlets of the Church Feud-triad. It was published on Sept. 1st, 1855, between the 7th and 8th installments of “The Moment”. “The Changelessness of God” is a discourse that Kierkegaard gave as a sermon on May 18, 1851, in the Citadel Church in Copenhagen, but it had not previously been published. It has the Epistle text of James 1, 17-21 as its basis, a text that Kierkegaard had also used in his Upbuilding Discourses of 1843. It contains one of his favourite passages from the Bible: “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow”. In his journal from May 1851, after having given the sermon, he refers to the text basis as “my first, dear Jacob” and says about his sermon that he felt he preached “passably”, but so weakly that he could barely be heard” (NB 24:74). As most of Kierkegaard’s religious writings, this too is called a discourse, and for this his final separate publication, Kierkegaard uses again the printed dedication that he first used in his upbuilding discourses from 1843, that for his father: “To the late Michael Pedersen Kierkegaard formerly a clothing merchant here in the city, my father, these discourses are dedicated.” Those who had been in doubt as to his mental health due to the publications in “The Moment”, had now finally been disproven or persuaded that there was absolutely nothing wrong with his sanity. This piece constitutes a lucid and calm sermon, a continuation of his upbuilding discourses, which had been of pivotal importance to him since 1843. “It also served the purpose, as H. Johnson notes, of demonstrating that Kierkegaard’s attack was from within the church, as a believer—a fact that many have failed to notice, especially since his anti-ecclesiastical tracts were translated later in places where readers had not been exposed to the rest of his writings. Kierkegaard, in fact, always considered his upbuilding discourses to be even more important than his philosophical writings.” (D. Anthony Storm). The year 1855 marks the definitive turn in Kierkegaard’s life and in his career. It is the year that he publishes his final four publications and the year that he dies. In his earlier works For Self Examination and Practice in Christianity, from 1850 and 1851 respectively, Kierkegaard had already addressed the topic of true Christianity as opposed to the official and institutionalized Christendom. Back then, he had done so, not subtly, but also not as a full-blown attack. After a publishing hiatus of more than three years, this was going to change. At the end of his life, Kierkegaard embarked on a controversial and fierce attack upon the Danish Church that would have immense consequences for the development and comprehension of the official Church, the priesthood, and Christianity itself. The Danish State Church epitomized all that he found wrong with Christendom as a whole, and he did not embark on his quest lightly. Throughout his writings, Kierkegaard had maintained that the belief in Christ required a leap of faith and all of one’s person. The Danish Lutheran church on the other hand claimed that all Danes were born Lutheran and were thus Christians, unless they actively chose not to be. The Danish Church had moved increasingly towards transforming Christianity into a profane state religion. It is still the case in Denmark today that when you are born a Dane, you are also born a member of the Church. This equivalence between Church and State was extremely far from what Kierkegaard believed Christianity to be. Kierkegaard felt that the Church had betrayed the Christianity of the New Testament and he was willing to fight till his death to defend what he understood true Christianity to be. We were well beyond thoughts of reformation. It needed to be torn down and completely rebuilt. The war was waged in newspaper articles in the paper The Fatherland and in the “periodical” Kierkegaard himself founded with the sole purpose of attacking the Church, “Øieblikket” (i.e. The Moment. Kierkegaard’s assault on official Christendom and the Danish Church was based upon his notion that Christendom had departed too far from the Christianity of The New Testament. For the outraged Kierkegaard, Bishop Mynster typified the complacent and established “official” Christianity, but the relationship with Mynster was complicated. He and Kierkegaard had always been closely intertwined. Few people played as important a role in Kierkegaard’s life as Mynster, who Kierkegaard would constantly relate and refer to. Kierkegaard’s “mild” attack on the Church and the established Christianity in Denmark in Training in Christianity (1851) hit Mynster harder than anyone else, and the two theological giants never reconciled after the publication of that work. But Kierkegaard had saved something much worse for later. For his own enormous respect for Mynster, it also meant a great deal that Mynster was the last person to talk to Kierkegaard’s father before he died, and that his father had always held him in extremely high regard. In his Journal from 1853, he writes “...I have something upon my conscience as a writer. Let me indicate precisely how I feel about it. There is something quite definite I have to say, and I have so much upon my conscience that (as I feel) I dare not die without having uttered it. For the instant I die and so leave this world (so I understand it) I shall in the very same second (so frightfully fast it goes!), in the very same second I shall be infinitely far away, in a different place, where, still within the same second (frightful speed!), the question will be put to me: “Hast thou uttered the definite message quite definitely?” And if I have not done so, what then?... There is something quite definite I have to say. But verily I am not eager to say it. On the contrary, I would so infinitely prefer that another should say it— which, however, would not help me, since (as I understand it) it was and remains my task.... For it is not a cheerful message, this definitive thing, and I cannot but think that there are several persons dear to me to whom it would be unwelcome to hear it said. Above all there is a right reverend old man, a consideration which has constantly held me back, laid a restraint upon my tongue and upon my pen, a consideration for the highest dignitary of the Church, a man to whom by the memory of a deceased father I felt myself drawn with an almost melancholic affection—and I must think that to him especially it will be very unwelcome that this is said.” (Pap. X 6 B: 371). This excellently sums up, one the one hand, the necessity Kierkegaard felt in saying what needed to be said about the state of Christianity in Denmark, and, on the other hand, why he was reluctant to say it. He knew it would offend, but most of all hurt, especially Mynster, for whom he still had great affection. At the same time, it was also Bishop Mynster, who was responsible for the approach Kierkegaard considered so dangerous to true Christianity, the person who personified the weak and complacent established “official” Christianity that disregarded the true Christianity of The New Testament – the kind of tame Christianity in which the priests tell the congregation what they want to hear. What was he to do? Kierkegaard’s journals and papers are full of entries that reflect the conundrum. The defining moment occurred when Mynster had died, which happened on January 30th, 1854. The Sunday before the funeral, Professor (of Theology) H.L. Martensen, Court Preacher at Christiansborg Slotskirke, gave a commemorative sermon for Mynster, in which he included him in a series of holy men going back to the apostles and called him a “witness to the truth” and a “martyr” (in Danish “Blodvidne”). Kierkegaard could not take it. He finally broke his silence and protested with an article in The Fatherland, where he called Mynster a “frail pleasure-seeker, who was great only as an orator” and presented his own version of a “witness to the truth”, namely “A witness to the truth, a real witness to the truth, is a man who is skinned alive, abused, dragged from one prison to the next, and in the end (…) crucified, beheaded, burned at the stake, or fried on a grill, his soulless body left unburied and sprawling (…) in some remote place—that’s how a witness to the truth is buried!” (Var Biskop Myster et ”Sandhedsvidne”…, December 18, 1854). And thus, the crusade against the established Danish Church had begun. Kierkegaard continued his fight against Martensen, against the priests, against the official Christianity of Denmark, and against the Church, in articles in The Fatherland, in “The Moment”, and in his final separate publications. Although Kierkegaard’s illness and soon to follow death on November 11 ended Kierkegaard’s writing and continued attacks, it did not end the storm on the Church that the epigons continued. Kierkegaard’s authorship before 1851 had made him famous in both Denmark and abroad as one of the greatest living philosophers and theologians. His attack on official Christianity, however had a more direct effect upon his own kingdom, but also upon the neighbouring countries Norway, Sweden, and Germany. Kierkegaard’s Church Feud continued for years after his death and kept affecting the Church severely. One must remember that this fierce attack came from one of the most respected thinkers of the period – of all periods –, and it came from within, not from an atheist. It came from a believer, a more profound believer than most. Kierkegaard had a single copy of The Changelessness of God in his possession when he died (Auction Catalogue # 2186, where there is no description of appearance). Himmelstrup 200 The present copy is no. 94 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎

‎Om Begrebet Ironi med stadigt hensyn til Socrates. Af S. A. Kierkegaard. - [A TRULY SPLENDID, COMPLETELY FRESH COPY IN THE DAINTIEST OF THE GIFT-BINDINGS]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, P.G. Philipsens Forlag, 1841. 8vo. (8), 350 pp. Gift binding of elaborately blindpatterned full cloth with single gilt line-border to boards and single gilt lines to spine. All edges gilt and printed on fine paper. The slightest touch of wear to corners and capitals, but apart from that a complete fresh, clean, bright and tight copy. It looks like it has hardly been opened and seems like it just came from the binder. No markings of any kind. ‎

‎A truly splendid copy of the first edition of Kierkegaard's dissertation, being a completely fresh copy in the daintiest of the gift-bindings, presumably one of the two daintily bound copies that Kierkegaard had in his own collection (nr. 2110-11 in the auction catalogue). The copy is with the Thesis, and both the day and the time has been filled in by hand. Kierkegaard's dissertationconstitutes the culmination of three years’ intensive studies of Socrates and “the true point of departure for Kierkegaard’s authorship” (Brandes). The work is of the utmost importance in Kierkegaard’s production, not only as his first academic treatise, but also because he here introduces several themes that will be addressed in his later works. Among these we find the question of defining the subject of cognition and self-knowledge of the subject. The maxim of “know thyself” will be a constant throughout his oeuvre, as is the theory of knowledge acquisition that he deals with here. The dissertation is also noteworthy in referencing many of Hegel’s theses in a not negative context, something that Kierkegaard himself would later note with disappointment and characterize as an early, uncritical use of Hegel. Another noteworthy feature is the fact that the thesis is written in Danish, which was unheard of at the time. Kierkegaard felt that Danish was a more suitable language for the thesis and hadto petition the King to be granted permission to submit it in Danish rather than Latin. This in itself poses as certain irony, as the young Kierkegaard was known to express himself poorly and very long-winded in written Danish. One of Kierkegaard’s only true friends, his school friend H.P. Holst recounts (in 1869) how the two had a special school friendship and working relationship, in which Kierkegaard wrote Latin compositions for Holst, while Holst wrote Danish compositions for Kierkegaard, who “expressed himself in a hopelessly Latin Danish crawling with participial phrases and extraordinarily complicatedsentences” (Garff, p. 139). When Kierkegaard, in 1838, was ready to publish his famous piece on Hans Christian Andersen (see nr. 1 & 2 above), which was to appear in Heiberg’s journal Perseus, Heiberg had agreed to publish the piece, although he had some severe critical comments about the way and the form in which it was written – if it were to appear in Perseus, Heiberg demanded, at the very least, the young Kierkegaard would have to submit it in a reasonably readable Danish. “Kierkegaard therefore turned to his old schoolmate H. P. Holst and asked him to do something with the language…” (Garff, p. 139). From their school days, Holst was well aware of the problem with Kierkegaard’s Danish, and he recounts that over the summer, he actually “translated” Kierkegaard’s article on Andersen into proper Danish. The oral defense was conducted in Latin, however. The judges all agreed that the work submitted was both intelligent and noteworthy. But they were concerned about its style, which was found to be both tasteless, long-winded, and idiosyncratic. We already here witness Kierkegaard’s idiosyncratic approach to content and style that is so characteristic for all of his greatest works. Both stylistically and thematically, Kierkegaard’s and especially a clear precursor for his magnum opus Either-Or that is to be his next publication. In many ways, Either-Or is born directly out of The Concept of Irony and is the work that brings the theory of Irony to life. Part One of the dissertation concentrates on Socrates as interpreted by Xenophon, Plato, and Aristophanes, with a word on Hegel and Hegelian categories. Part Two is a more synoptic discussion of the concept of irony in Kierkegaard’s categories, with examples from other philosophers. The work constitutes Kierkegaard’s attempt at understanding the role of irony in disrupting society, and with Socrates understood through Kierkegaard, we witness a whole new way of interpreting the world before us. Wisdom is not necessarily fixed, and we ought to use Socratic ignorance to approach the world without the inherited bias of our cultures. With irony, we will be able to embrace the not knowing. We need to question the world knowing we may not find an answer. The moment we stop questioning and just accept the easy answers, we succumb to ignorance. We must use irony to laugh at ourselves in order to improve ourselves and to laugh at society in order to improve the world. The work was submitted to the Philosophical Faculty at the University of Copenhagen on June 3rd 1841. Kierkegaard had asked for his dissertation to be ready from the printer’s in ample time for him to defend it before the new semester commenced. This presumably because he had already planned his sojourn to Berlin to hear the master philosopher Schelling. On September 16th, the book was issued, and on September 29th, the defense would take place. The entire defense, including a two hour long lunch break, took seven hours, during which ”an unusually full auditorium” would listen to the official opponents F.C. Sibbern and P.O. Brøndsted as well as the seven “ex auditorio” opponents F.C. Petersen, J.L. Heiberg, P.C. Kierkegaard, Fr. Beck, F.P.J. Dahl, H .J.Thue og C.F. Christens, not to mention Kierkegaard himself. The work appeared in two states – one with the four pages of “Theses”, for academics of the university, whereas the copies without the theses were intended for ordinary sale. These sales copies also do not have “Udgivet for Magistergraden” and “theologisk Candidat” on the title-page. The first page of the theses always contains the day “XXIX” of September written in hand, and sometimes the time “hora X” is also written in hand, but not always. In all, 11 presentation-copies of the dissertation are known, and of these only one is signed (that for Holst), all the others merely state the title and name of the recipient. As is evident from the auction catalogue of his collection, Kierkegaard had a number of copies of his dissertation in his possession when he died. Five of them were bound, and two of them were “nit. M. Guldsnit” (i.e. daintily bound and with gilt edges). These two copies were obviously meant as presentation-copies that he then never gave away. The gift copies of the dissertation were given two types of bindings, both brownish cloth, one type patterned, the other one plain, and some of them have gilt edges, but most of the plain ones do not. There exist two copies on thick vellum paper – one being Kierkegaard’s own copy, the other being the copy for H.C. Ørsted, discoverer of electromagnetism and then principle of the University of Copenhagen. “As already implied, two works of the authorship stand out in the sense that Kierkegaard sent his presentation-copies to a special circle of people: The dissertation from 1841...” (Posselt, Textspejle, p. 91, translated from Danish). Most of the copies were given to former teachers and especially to people who, due to leading positions, personified the university. “For this circle of initiated we can now, due to registered copies, confirm that Kierkegaard gave copies with handwritten dedications to the headmaster of the University H.C. Ørsted (printed on thick paper), Kolderup-Rosenvinge and to J.L. Heiberg. It is granted that Sibbern, Madvig and F.C. Petersen were also given the dissertation as a gift,... but these copies are not known (yet).” (Posselt, Textspejle, pp. 93-94, translated fromDanish). (N.b. We have since handled the copy given to Petersen and can thus confirm that it exists). Only a few months after Kierkegaard died (11th of November 1855), at the beginning of April 1856, his books were put up for sale. The sale was an event which created stir among scholars all over Denmark, and the event drew large crowds. Everyone wanted a piece of the recently deceased legend, and bidding was lively. The average price for the single items was nearly a rix-dollar, a very high price for that time. As the old Herman Lynge wrote in a letter on the 22nd of May (The Royal Library, Recent Letters, D.), to the famous collector F.S. Bang, “At the sale of Dr. Søren Kierkegaard’s books everything went at very high prices, especially his own works, which brought 2 or 3 times the published prices”.” (Rohde Auction Catalogue, p. LVIJ). Many authors, philosophers, and scholars were present in the auction room, which was completely full, as was the Royal Library, who bought ca 80 lots. “Many of the books, not only his own, were paid for with much higher prices than in the book shops” (In Morgenposten no. 99, 30. April 1856, written by “P.”, translated from Danish). ""Some books were bought by libraries where they still are today, others were bought by private people, who sometimes wrote their names in the front of the books and thus, indirectly, stated that they came from Kierkegaard’s book collection… The edition (of the auction catalogue, 1967) registers all books from Kierkegaard’s book collection that it has hitherto been possible to identify – either in public or in private ownership… All in all, nearly a couple of hundred volumes – i.e. ca. 10 % – of the Kierkegaardian book collection is said to be rediscovered…"" (Rohde). Thus, today, books from Kierkegaard’s library are of the utmost scarcity. Only very few are still possible to acquire, and they hardly ever appear on the market. Himmelstrup 8‎

‎I. A: Ogsaa et Forsvar for Qvindens höie Anlæg. II. B: Kjøbenhavnspostens Morgenbetragtninger i Nr. 43 + III. B: Om Fædrelandets Polemik + IV. S. KIERKEGAARD: Til Hr. Orla Lehman. [printed in: Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post, Interimsblad Nr. 34, 76, 82/83 ... - [VERY RARE FIRST PRINTINGS OF KIERKEGAARD'S FIRST FOUR PUBLICATIONS]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, 1834-1836. Large 4to. Interimsblade [i.e. Interim Papers] 1-100, with the joint title-page and the contents leaf, bound in a very nice contemporary brown half calf with gilt spine and marbled paper over boards. Spine with wear and hinges and corners bumped. Edges of boards with wear. Occasional brownspotting throughout, but all in all a fine and well preserved copy. Each “Interimsblad” takes up 4 pp. Kierkegaard’s contributions: I: ab. 1 p. II: 2 3/4 pp. III: 4 pp. IV: 4 pp.‎

‎Very rare first printings of Kierkegaard’s first four publications, including the very first publication in Kierkegaard’s own name, which constitutes a true milestone in the history of Kierkegaard’s opus, as does, of course, his very first publication. KIERKEGAARD’S VERY EARLIEST publications are the papers that he publishes in Kjøbenhavns Flyvende Post, before he publishes his famous first book, which is a polemic attack on Hans Christian Andersen. The first and fourth of these earliest periodical publications are arguably the most important, being the very first thing Kierkegaard publishes and the very first publication in Kierkegaard’s own name respectively" but all these four earliest papers (Himmelstrup 1,2,3, and 4) are significant, 2,3, and 4 dealing with contemporary press issues, primarily freedom of press. Danish politics in the 1830’es was dominated by the slow implementation of rules for election for and assembly of the Estates of the Realm. But as they were only advisory, the papers and periodicals were not allowed to publish their opinions. In response to this, a liberal opposition arose around the two polemic papers Kjøbenhavnsposten (The Copenhagen Post) and Fædrelandet (The Fatherland). The first point on the agenda for the Liberals was the fight for freedom of the press and the abolishment of censorship. This fight for freedom of the press was something that found resonance with Copenhagen academics, and it stirred up a lively activity in Copenhagen. In 1835, active Liberals had encouraged King Frederik VI to support freedom of press but had received an answer stating that he alone was able to evaluate what was truly the best for the people and the state. After this answer from the king, the “Society for the Correct Use of the Freedom of press” was founded by moderate liberals and young liberals, and at the end of the year almost 2.300 members had joined. It was in the midst of all this that the 21-year old Søren Kierkegaard, then a student of theology, had his debut, with political-literary articles in Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post, in Interimsbladende, which were published separately. But as opposed to the predominantly liberal views of almost all other contributors, Kierkegaard’s articles expressed distinctly conservative views. His first publication, Også et Forsvar for Qvindens høie Anlæg (Also a Defense of the High Abilities of the Woman) constitutes an unpolished ironic apology for the liberation of women. This article is published in December 1834 and is signed “A.”. As opposed to the following next three articles, this does not deal with freedom of press. Kierkegaard’s three following publications, however, all concern the question of freedom of press and constitute satirical polemics against the two liberal papers Kjøbenhavnsposten and Fædrelandet, against Orla Lehmann, the upcoming star of the liberal youth, and against all liberals in general. These three articles were published in February and April 1836. The two first are signed “B.”, and the third, signed “S. Kierkegaard”, constitutes the very first publication in his own name. As is well known, the names under which Kierkegaard later publishes come to play a significant role in his authorship and represent an extremely thorough and well-thought-out construction. The foundation of this play with the reader is thus laid in the present publications, in which he begins to develop the style for which he later gained worldwide renown. The “names” A and B, under which he here publishes, will most famously be used again in Either- Or, Part one of which consists in “A.’s Papers” and Part Two in “B.’s Papers, Letters to A.” Common for all four of his first publications is the attempt at polemic and satirical power, at literary elegance and at a masterful and ceremonious critique of the prose of the opponent – all dominant traits in his later writings. Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post (The Flying Post of Copenhagen) was one of the most important and most widely read cultural and literary periodicals of the period. It was edited and run by Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791-1860), arguably the most famous cultural person during the Danish Golden Age. He played a more significant role than any other author or thinker during this period and was the leading character of literature and philosophy in the 19th century. He introduced many German thinkers to Denmark, most importantly Hegel – who Kierkegaard would later oppose –, and he was part of almost all intellectual discussions of the Danish Golden Age. He was also a patron for many leading figures of the era. Interestingly, several people thought that the first of the articles on the freedom of the press was written by Heiberg. This was of dubious merit to Kierkegaard himself, as he was opposed to the circles around Heiberg and the Hegelian environment, but it was still this article – and this miscomprehension – that gave him a claim to fame. Another paper claimed that this “priceless” article had been written by Heiberg himself, who “had written many witty things, but never anything as witty as this.” Also Kierkegaard’s professor of philosophy, Poul Martin Møller, to whom Kierkegaard was very devoted and to whom he dedicated Begrebet Angest (the only person outside of his family that Kierkegaard ever wrote a printed dedication for), loved the article and assumed that Heiberg had written it. “He (Kierkegaard) had a lifelong antipathy toward the press, though he himself published reviews in various papers. His mistrust of the press as a legitimate organ of communication was based on several observations, one of which was that the press was the voice of the masses, rather than that of the individual. He viewed that voice with great skepticism and sarcasm in later years, averring that the crowd... even if technically correct... is wrong by the very fact of being the crowd. The truth can only be stated and practiced as individuals, especially as individuals before God. Admittedly, Kierkegaard’s view of the masses was not well developed at this juncture.” (D. Antony Storm). Himmelstrup: 1, 2, 3 & 4. The present copy is no. 1 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎

‎Lilien paa Marken og Fuglen under Himlen. Tre gudelige Taler af S. Kierkegaard. - [MIGNIFICENT COPY IN GIFT-BINDING]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1849. 8vo. 51 pp. Original gift-binding of the black glitted paper with single gilt lines, all edges gilt, and printed on fine paper. Back hinge cracked and both hinges with loss of paper. Capitals and corners also worn with a bit of loss of paper, and lighter wear along edges of boards. Internally very nice and fresh. A gift-copy, with all likelihood a presentation-copy, from which the presentation has been torn out. Kierkegaard-inscriptions have been the object of many autograph-hunter’s desire, and we have several examples of front free end-papers that have definitely born a presentation-inscription from him, having been torn out.‎

‎An fabulous copy of the first edition of one of Kierkegaard's treasured works. This is without doubt a gift-binding and thus either one of the copies that Kierkegaard had in his possession when he died and never gave away, or it is a presentation-copy, from which the presentationinscription is lacking. In the present copy, the front free end-paper, on which Kierkegaard wrote his presentation-inscriptions in this work, has been torn out (there are tiny remains from it), making the latter scenario by far the most likely. Considered one of Kierkegaard’s most engaging works, “The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air” consists in three of his most important speeches, which represent the highlight of upbuilding existentialist thought. The three main themes of the work are silence, obedience and joy, and the thread that binds it all together is passion. “Experiencing the greatness of the universe, the beauty and the wonder of it, can lead to existential silence and induce a wonder that is the beginning of all philosophy. In the chosen book, Kierkegaard describes how inexpressibly much one can find joy in that which is near.” (Cappelørn). Like Nietzsche, Kierkegaard saw the period in which he was born as one characterized by a crisis of faith. But whereas Nietzsche sought to destroy the remnants of a Christianity that was falling apart, Kierkegaard wished to create a Christianity that would be able to live and flourish. This is particularly explicit in the present work, where he uses his three discourses to analyze the famous biblical Sermon on the Mount. These three Godly discourses vary from his other Discourses – Upbuilding and Various – in answering the by now so familiar question “what it is to be a human being” from a godly standpoint, teaching us about silence, obedience, and joy. Kierkegaard himself described the discourses as “indescribably uplifting” (Pap. X 1 A 353) and described the structure, meant to make us act and adapt to the “new” Christendom, as first, esthetic, second, ethical, third, religious (Pap. VIII 1 A 1). In 2018, a new translation of this seminal work appeared at Princeton University Press, the review of which very appropriately stated: “A masterful new translation of one of Kierkegaard’s most engaging works. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells his followers to let go of earthly concerns by considering the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Soren Kierkegaard’s short masterpiece on this famous gospel passage draws out its vital lessons for readers in a rapidly modernizing and secularizing world. Trenchant, brilliant, and written in stunningly lucid prose, The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air (1849) is one of Kierkegaard’s most important books. Presented here in a fresh new translation with an informative introduction, this profound yet accessible work serves as an ideal entree to an essential modern thinker. The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air reveals a less familiar but deeply appealing side of the father of existentialism – unshorn of his complexity and subtlety, yet supremely approachable. As Kierkegaard later wrote of the book, “Without fighting with anybody and without speaking about myself, I said much of what needs to be said, but movingly, mildly, upliftingly.” This masterful edition introduces one of Kierkegaard’s most engaging and inspiring works to a new generation of readers.” (Princeton University Press, 2018). It is no wonder that it was precisely this work that was chosen to accompany Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen into space on September 2nd, 2015. With its beautiful descriptions of nature, with its strong focus on the value of enjoying the moment and that which is present, and with its teaching us to be humble, the book seems the perfect choice for man in space. Kierkegaard had three copies of the work in his possession when he died (auction catalogue 2156-58). This is one of the scarcest Kierkegaard-titles to find in the trade. When we make our sets of first editions of Kierkegaard’s works, this is the one we always have to wait the longest to find. When we finally get a copy, it is rarely found on its own and is usually bound with something else. We have only handled few copies of it separately bound. The present copy is no. 64 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎

‎Sygdommen til Døden. En Christelig psychologisk Udvikling til Opbyggelse og Opvækkelse. Af Anti-Climacus. Udgivet af S. Kierkegaard. - [MAGNIFICENT GIFT-BINDING OF SICKNESS UNTO DEATH]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1849. 8vo. (8), 136 pp. Original gift-binding of the black glitted paper and printed on fine paper. Neatly rebacked in a slightly more brownish black tone, recreating the gilt lines of the original spine. Edges slightly bumped and light signs of wear overall. Light scattered brownspotting. With the ownership signature of N. Chr. M. Bredsdorff to front free end-paper. ‎

‎Excellent copy of the first edition, in the original gift-binding, presumably being one of the five copies that Kierkegaard had in his possession when he died. This is with all likelihood one of the copies Kierkegaard had bound to give away, but then never did, meaning that it was to be found in the auction of his books after he died. Only one buyer of any of the five copies he had in his collection was registered, the other four are registered as having paid cash and are not registered by name. This is presumably one of those four copies, possibly bought by Bredsdorff, who was out of a family of priests and himself became a theologian. Sickness unto Death is one of the main works of Christian existentialism. It is this monumental work, which introduces the new pseudonym of Anti-Climacus, that we find Kierkegaard’s concept of despair, and it is here that he develops his theory of “the sin of despair”. Together with Training in Christianity, Kierkegaard considered Sickness Unto Death ”the most valuable I have produced”, and, indeed, many consider this work the most perfect of all of his works. Here, Christianity is expressed in its most idealized form. Kierkegaard suffered daily from worries that publishing the work would convey that he was himself an ideal Christian, and he long left it unpublished. Finally, after more than a year of worries and considerations, he decided that, as with his major philosophical works, this too would have a pseudonymous author and himself merely as the publisher. The pseudonym here, however, had another purpose than the earlier ones. Instead of deceiving or qualifying the work esthetically, the pseudonym is chosen for Kierkegaard not to present himself as the perfect Christian. He chose a new pseudonym that perfectly contrasted the author of Philosophical Fragments and Concluding Unscientific Postscript (Johannes Climacus, who did not see himself as a Christian), namely Johannes Anti-Climacus, and finally, after more than a year of hesitation, Kierkegaard could publish his religious masterpiece with peace of mind. “Anti-Climacus is also the author of Practice in Christianity. He might be considered the author of Kierkegaard’s greatest religious works, just as Johannes Climacus is the author of the great pseudonymous (esthetic) works. H. Hong remarks, “The prefix (Anti-) does not mean ‘against.’ An old form of ‘ante’ (before), as in ‘anticipate,’ the prefix denotes a relation of rank, as in ‘before me’ in the First Commandment”. In his journals Kierkegaard said, “Climacus is lower, denies he is a Christian. Anti-Climacus is higher, a Christian on an extraordinarily high level”. Kierkegaard considered this work and Practice in Christianity to be among his most important. The Sickness Unto Death is a companion piece to the Concept of Anxiety, which is also a “psychological” work, and moves beyond the earlier preliminary psychological considerations of anxiety in the face of freedom or anxiety derived from and leading to sin. Like its companion, this work is short but very dense. Here Kierkegaard considers the spiritual aspects of despair. As anxiety is related to the ethical, despair is related to the religious, that is, to the eternal.” (D. Anthony Storm, Commentary on Kierkegaard). Kierkegaard had six copies of Sickness Unto Death in his possession when he died (Auction Catalogue 2159-63), all in gift bindings (i.e. the black glitted paper bindings). The present copy is no. 70 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎

‎Christelige Taler. (4 Afdelinger). - [THE CHRISTIAN DISCOURSES]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, C.A. Reitzel, 1848. 8vo. Beautiful a little later (ca. 1870'ies) brown half calf with gilt spine. Boards with blind-stamped pattern. Corners slightly bumped. a lively, tight, and well-preserved copy. Internally very fresh and clean with jst some occasional brownspotting. A faded owld ownership signature to title-page. A few notes in pencil. Some brownspotting. 1037496 77 pp. ‎

‎Firste editiopn of Kierkegaard's Christian Discourses. Published in the midst of the politically tumultuous and revolutionary year 1848, Kierkegaard’s Christian Discourses occupies a unique and inspirational position in European literature. With its simplicity and reflective inwardness, the four sections of discourses both invoke Kierkegaard’s collision with the established order of Christendom, but at the same time serve as reassuring affirmations of the blessedness of Christian life – in the midst of a world that seemed to be governed by suffering, uproar, and fundamental change. Marx had published his Communist Manifesto on February 29 1848, Denmark had just gotten its first Prime Minister on March 22 and would get its first Constitution a year later. Kierkegaard’s Christian Discourses was published on April 25 1848. This was amid the most widespread revolutionary wave in European history, also known as The Springtime of Nations, and a mere month after the fall of the absolute monarchy in Denmark (March 21st). But Kierkegaard recognized only one danger: the religious danger. On March 27, 1848, he wrote in his journal: “So here I sit. Outside everything is in movement, nationalism surges high in all, everyone talks of sacrificing life and blood, is perhaps ready to do it, but supported by the omnipotence of public opinion. And here I sit in a quiet room (I will doubtlessly soon be in ill repute for indifference to the national cause) I recognize only one danger: the religious danger.” (NB 4:118). The Christian Discourses consists of twenty-eight discourses that are divided into four equal sections of seven discourses each, on Biblical texts. The work is arranged in contrasting styles. Whereas Parts One, The Cares of the Pagans, and Three, Thoughts That Wound from Behind--for Upbuilding, are polemical and can be read as invoking Kierkegaard’s collision with the established order of Christendom, Parts Two, Joyful Notes in the Strife of Suffering, and Four, Discourses at the Communion on Fridays, are reassuring for the single individual, affirming the joy and blessedness of a Christian life. The work is written in a simple style, accessible for everyone, and it presents key Christian themes and concepts in a clear and simple way, thus serving as one of the best introductions to the Christendom of Kierkegaard. It is furthermore here that he introduces his Discourses at the Communion on Fridays, a completely novel genre that came to play a significant role in Kierkegaard’s later writings. The work was published in four parts, with separate title-pages and with half-titles stating First to Fourth section. The work is almost always found in one volume, as it also appeared, but the four parts also appeared separately. Himmelstrup 110. ‎

‎Begrebet Angest. En simpel psychologisk=paapegende Overveielse i Retning af det dogmatiske Problem om Arvesynden. Af Vigilius Hafniensis. - [INTRODUCING ""ANGST"" IN PHILOSOPHY - A WONDERFUL COPY OF THE NOTORIOUSLY SCARCE FIRST EDITION]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1844. 8vo. (8), 184 pp. Lovely contemporary brown half calf with richly gilt spine. Light wear to hinges, capitals, and corners, but overall very nice. First leaves with a bit of brownspotting, but also internally unusually nice.‎

‎An absolutely lovely copy in contemporary binding of this notoriously rare first edition. It is this classic of Existentialism that introduced the notion of “Angst” (anxiety) in philosophy. If Kierkegaard had written nothing else, The Concept of Anxiety alone would have cemented him as one of the most important thinkers since antiquity. Nowhere else can one find an account of the concept of anxiety that comes close in importance to the one Kierkegaard gives in the present work. Using the Fall in the Garden of Eden as the foundation of the analysis, he succeeds in describing what no-one has been able to before or since. “Long before modern psychology had entered puberty, Kierkegaard unfurled advanced psychological concepts that in many senses were Freudian before Freud was around. In his primary psychological work, The Concept of Anxiety, he presents his detailed analyses of the relationship of anxiety to phenomena such as freedom, sexuality, original sin, and history.” (The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre). Being one of his most important and influential philosophical works, The Concept of Anxiety is essential to all later existentialist writers. It was arguably this work that more than any other influenced Existentialism. The work bears a printed dedication to his beloved Poul Martin Møller, one of the most beautiful and moving dedications in a philosophical work. Poul Martin Møller was his philosophy professor, but more than that he was a moral mentor and one of a few people that Kierkegaard truly admired and cared for. Poul Martin Møller died in 1838, leaving almost no published works behind" he is the only person outside of Kierkegaard’s immediate family (here including Regine), who had been honoured with a printed dedication in any of his books. Apart from the title Sixteen Upbuilding Discourses (the amputated Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses – without the two that were quickly sold out), The Concept of Anxiety is by far the scarcest of Kierkegaard’s works – “The Concept of Anxiety was only printed in 250 copies!” (Textspejle, p. 58, translated from Danish), which is ca half of most of the other works. It is, interestingly, the only one of the pseudonymous writings from the period that was reprinted, despite the poor sales numbers of the first issue. In the summer of 1847, when Reitzel buys the remainders of the first issue, a mere 165 copies of what is arguably now considered Kierkegaard’s most important work had been sold. The Concept of Anxiety is not only notorious for its pivotal importance in the history of philosophy and for essentially being the theoretical foundation of Existentialism among Kierkegaard collectors and bibliophiles in general, it is also notorious for its scarcity, having been printed in a mere ca 250 copies. Furthermore, like Fear and Trembling, not a single presentation-copy of the work is known to exist. Himmelstrup 62.‎

‎Synspunktet for min Forfatter=Virksomhed. En ligefrem Meddelelse, Rapport til Historien. - [KIERKEGAARD'S FINAL PIECE]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, 1859. 8vo. Nice, contemporary black half calf with four raised bands to gilt spine. Spine and corners worn. Light occasional brownspotting. (4), 114, (1) pp.‎

‎First edition of Kierkegaard’s final work on his own authorship. Kierkegaard had published only one of his three works on his own authorship, namely the short resumé (On My Work as an Author) of the present work, which he did not dare publish because he was afraid of being misunderstood by his contemporaries. The work constitutes a frank account of his method of authorship and also serves as a paramount piece of autobiography. In 1846, Kierkegaard had started using a protocol as his journal. This is the first of the journals denoted NB that he continued throughout the rest of his life. These journal entries, amounting to 36 volumes in all, are filled with attempts at understanding himself, his purpose, the meaning of his writings, and not least how he himself understood his authorship and wished for it to be understood in posterity. These latter considerations are the basis of the” The Point of View for My Work as an Author”, which Kierkegaard left unpublished, not wishing to be viewed as self-glorifying, to be published posthumously by Peter Kierkegaard, Søren’s brother. The considerations of whether to let “The Point of View for My Work as an Author” – which Kierkegaard also calls “The Confession of one Dying” – remain unpublished until after his death fill a lot in the notebooks from 1849 (eg. NB 10:6 NB 10:60 NB 10:169 NB 11:123 NB 11:195), clearly showing how much this work meant to Kierkegaard, who finally decided that it could indeed only be published posthumously. Himmelstrup 292.‎

‎S. Kierkegaards Bladartikler, med Bilag samlede efter Forfatterens Død, udgivne som Supplement til hans øvrige Skrifter af R. Nielsen. ‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, 1857. 8vo. Bound with the original front wrapper in a later, nice blue full cloth binding with gilt lettering and single gilt lines to spine. A small gilt stamp to front board. Minimal wear to corners, otherwise completely fresh. Also internally clean and well-preserved. XVI, 296 pp.‎

‎First edition. A posthumous collection of Søren Kierkegaard's newspaper articles, compiled by Rasmus Nielsen and published as a supplement to his main works. It offers insights into Kierkegaard’s critiques of society, culture, and especially the Danish Church. This volume highlights Kierkegaard’s public engagement and his critical stance on the state-church relationship. Himmelstrup 272.‎

‎Philosophiske Smuler eller en Smule Philosophi. Af Johannes Climacus. Udgivet af S. Kierkegaard. - [THE PHILOSOPHICAL FRAGMENTS]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1844. Small 8vo. Nice contemporary half calf with marbled boards. A small crack to upper front hinge and a bit of wear to extremities. Corners worn. Otherwise very nice. Also internally very nice and clean. 164 pp.‎

‎By many, Philosophical Fragments is considered Kierkegaard’s actual religious-philosophical main work. It is the first book written under the important pseudonym Johannes Climacus, and it is here that Kierkegaard unfolds the tension between philosophy and religion in an attempt to find a historical onset for eternal consciousness, opposing the ideological thought inherited by Plato, Aristotle and Hegel. Through Climacus, Kierkegaard contrasts the paradoxes of Christianity with Greek and modern philosophical thinking. He begins with Greek Platonic philosophy, exploring the implications of venturing beyond the Socratic understanding of truth acquired through recollection to the Christian experience of acquiring truth through grace. It is in Philosophical Fragments that Kierkegaard’s polemic against the philosophy of Hegel becomes most obvious, portraying clearly for the first time how the salvation of man can only be found through the paradoxical inversion of the rational values of speculative philosophy and through the “leap of faith” in the crucified Christ. It is here that we have the very root of Existentialism. In his preface, Kierkegaard hints at a possible “sequel [to Philosophical Fragments] in 17 pieces” this sequel was published in 1846, namely as the 600 pages long Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments (which is 83 pages long…). Himmelstrup: 62.‎

‎Indøvelse i Christendom. Af Anti-Climacus. Nr. I. II. III. Udgivet af S. Kierkegaard. - [SPLENDID COPY IN ORIGINAL CONDITION, BELONGING TO KIEKEGAARD'S COUSIN AND CONFIDENTE]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1850. 8vo. (4), 277 pp. Completely uncut in the original blue cardboard binding. Magnificently preserved with the spine almost completely intact, including the original printed paper title-label. Tiny loss of paper to the capitals and a little loss to the lower front hinge. A small crack to lower back hinge, but binding remarkably firm and tight. Very neat re-enforcements to inner hinges, otherwise unrestored. Light occasional brownspotting. Pencil-annotation to inside of front board. A four-line annotation (about Dean Gude and a sermon he gave in April 1885) to foot of p. 98. With the ownership signature of H.P. Kierkegaard, also dated in his hand “d. 26de September 1850”. Housed in a beautiful black glitted box with elaborate gilding and Gothic gilt lettering to spine (Harry Larsen). A bit of wear to extremities. Himmelstrup 121. ‎

‎A splendid copy of the first edition in original condition – in the original binding with the exceedingly rare original printed title-label preserved – which has belonged to Kierkegaard’s disabled cousin, who was a great source of inspiration to him. Kierkegaard’s confidante and close friend his cousin H.P. Kierkegaard received this copy the day after it was published (Sept. 25th). We have never seen a copy in this state before, with the original title-label preserved. By Kierkegaard himself described as his “most perfect and truest” work and by Mynster considered “a profane game with the holy”, Training in Christianity is one of the most important and most controversial of all of Kierkegaard’s works. As Kirmsse says, “[i]t marks the beginning of a relentless and single-minded campaign against “Christendom” “, heralding his feud with the established Church and the Danish priesthood. In many ways, Training in Christianity is considered one of the most quintessential Kierkegaardian works, having at the centre of attention the question of how to become a Christian in Christendom, leading ultimately to a fierce attack on the Danish church. It is in this work that Kierkegaard fully exposes his conception of the religious individual and fully describes the personal suffering that comes with being a Christian. Christ is considered the rolemodel, and true Christendom consists in following him. Thus, the Christian will also suffer for his faith, though no man shall become a martyr for the truth. Kierkegaard thus also distinguishes sharply between the established, triumphant church and the true, struggling one, which comes to constitute the essence of his attack on the established Danish Church. The work is published under the same pseudonym as Sickness Unto Death, Anti-Climacus, and also here, the pseudonym is not meant to deceive or to qualify the work aesthetically. On the contrary, this work evokes an idealized Christianity, and Kierkegaard did not wish to convey that he was himself such an ideal Christian. “Anti-Climacus is also the author of The Sickness Unto Death. He might be considered the author of Kierkegaard’s greatest religious works, just as Johannes Climacus is the author of the great pseudonymous (esthetic) works. H. Hong remarks, “The prefix (Anti-) does not mean ‘against.’ An old form of ‘ante’ (before), as in anticipate, the prefix denotes a relation of rank, as in ‘before me’ in the First Commandment”. In his journals Kierkegaard said, “Climacus is lower, denies he is a Christian. Anti-Climacus is higher, a Christian on an extra ordinarily high level”. Kierkegaard used Anti Climacus to write from the vantage point of a perfect Christian because he himself could not claim to be one. It should also be added that Kierkegaard decided to remove this pseudonym at the last moment, by hurrying to the printer, but was too late.” (Dr. Anthony Storm, Commentary on Kierkegaard). Along with being his “most perfect and truest” work, Kierkegaard also thought it to be, together with The Sickness Unto Death, his most important. Concluding that Christendom had departed so far from the Christianity of The New Testament, Kierkegaard, with Training in Christianity, seeks to reintroduce Christianity into Christendom. The work’s perfection lies in its combination of preaching and polemics. and truest thing.» In his reflections on such topics as Christ's invitation to the burdened, the imitatio Christi, the possibility of offense, and the exalted Bishop Mynster, who was then the face of the Danish Church, was outraged when he read the book and called it «a profane game with the holy». Mynster and Kierkegaard had always been closely intertwined. In many ways, Kierkegaard considered him almost family, but for the outraged Kierkegaard, Mynster also typified the complacent and established «official” Christianity. Few people were as important to Kierkegaard as Mynster, and no-one else suffered as severely from his attack on the established Christianity in Denmark. The two theological giants never reconciled. For Kierkegaard, the radical commandments of Christianity and what it demands from the individual are absolutely essential, and with Training in Christianity, he begins his crusade against the kind of tame Christianity in which the priests tell the congregation what they want to hear. ”Of the many works he wrote during 1848, his “richest and most fruitful year,” Kierkegaard specified Practice in Christianity as «the most perfect Christ, he takes as his theme the requirement of Christian ideality in the context of divine grace. Addressing clergy and laity alike, Kierkegaard asserts the need for institutional and personal admission of the accommodation of Christianity to the culture and to the individual misuse of grace. As a corrective defense, the book is an attempt to find, ideally, a basis for the established order, which would involve the order’s ability to acknowledge the Christian requirement, confess its own distance from it, and resort to grace for support in its continued existence. At the same time the book can be read as the beginning of Kierkegaard’s attack on Christendom. Because of the high ideality of the contents and in order to prevent the misunderstanding that he himself represented that ideality, Kierkegaard writes under a new pseudonym, Anti-Climacus.” (Hong edition). The present copy is no. 78 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎

‎Om Begrebet Ironi med stadigt hensyn til Socrates. Af S. A. Kierkegaard. - [KIERKEGAARD’S DISSERTATION IN THE ORIGINAL BINDING, WHICH IS OF THE UTMOST SCARCITY.]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, P.G. Philipsens Forlag, 1841. 8vo. (4), 350 pp., 1 f. (blank), 2 pp. (advertisements). Completely uncut and partly unopened in the original brown cardboard binding. Rebacked with paper perfectly matching that of the boards. Corners restored. Title-page evenly browned and a few leaves with a bit of brownspotting, but overall in unusually nice condition, clean, fresh, and bright. Completely unmarked.‎

‎A fabulous copy of the first edition of Kierkegaard’s dissertation, here in the original binding, which is of the utmost scarcity. We have only seen it in this state once before. And of all the copies we have handled of the Irony over the last decades, we have only once before come across a copy with the advertisement-leaf in the back. This is virtually never present. This completely uncut copy is approximately 1 cm taller and wider than regular copies. The spines of the original Kierkegaard cardboard bindings are always just thin paper directly glued on the block, making them extremely fragile, especially on the thicker volumes. If one finds these original bindings, the spines are almost always more or less disintegrated. Kierkegaard's dissertation constitutes the culmination of three years’ intensive studies of Socrates and “the true point of departure for Kierkegaard’s authorship” (Brandes). The work is of the utmost importance in Kierkegaard’s production, not only as his first academic treatise, but also because he here introduces several themes that will be addressed in his later works. Among these we find the question of defining the subject of cognition and self-knowledge of the subject. The maxim of “know thyself” will be a constant throughout his oeuvre, as is the theory of knowledge acquisition that he deals with here. The dissertation is also noteworthy in referencing many of Hegel’s theses in a not negative context, something that Kierkegaard himself would later note with disappointment and characterize as an early, uncritical use of Hegel. Another noteworthy feature is the fact that the thesis is written in Danish, which was unheard of at the time. Kierkegaard felt that Danish was a more suitable language for the thesis and hadto petition the King to be granted permission to submit it in Danish rather than Latin. This in itself poses as certain irony, as the young Kierkegaard was known to express himself poorly and very long-winded in written Danish. One of Kierkegaard’s only true friends, his school friend H.P. Holst recounts (in 1869) how the two had a special school friendship and working relationship, in which Kierkegaard wrote Latin compositions for Holst, while Holst wrote Danish compositions for Kierkegaard, who “expressed himself in a hopelessly Latin Danish crawling with participial phrases and extraordinarily complicatedsentences” (Garff, p. 139). When Kierkegaard, in 1838, was ready to publish his famous piece on Hans Christian Andersen (see nr. 1 & 2 above), which was to appear in Heiberg’s journal Perseus, Heiberg had agreed to publish the piece, although he had some severe critical comments about the way and the form in which it was written – if it were to appear in Perseus, Heiberg demanded, at the very least, the young Kierkegaard would have to submit it in a reasonably readable Danish. “Kierkegaard therefore turned to his old schoolmate H. P. Holst and asked him to do something with the language…” (Garff, p. 139). From their school days, Holst was well aware of the problem with Kierkegaard’s Danish, and he recounts that over the summer, he actually “translated” Kierkegaard’s article on Andersen into proper Danish. The oral defense was conducted in Latin, however. The judges all agreed that the work submitted was both intelligent and noteworthy. But they were concerned about its style, which was found to be both tasteless, long-winded, and idiosyncratic. We already here witness Kierkegaard’s idiosyncratic approach to content and style that is so characteristic for all of his greatest works. Both stylistically and thematically, Kierkegaard’s and especially a clear precursor for his magnum opus Either-Or that is to be his next publication. The year 1841 is a momentous one in Kierkegaard’s life. It is the year that he completes his dissertation and commences his sojourn in Berlin, but it is also the defining year in his personal life, namely the year that he breaks off his engagement with Regine Olsen. And finally, it is the year that he begins writing Either-Or. In many ways, Either-Or is born directly out of The Concept of Irony and is the work that brings the theory of Irony to life. Part One of the dissertation concentrates on Socrates as interpreted by Xenophon, Plato, and Aristophanes, with a word on Hegel and Hegelian categories. Part Two is a more synoptic discussion of the concept of irony in Kierkegaard’s categories, with examples from other philosophers. The work constitutes Kierkegaard’s attempt at understanding the role of irony in disrupting society, and with Socrates understood through Kierkegaard, we witness a whole new way of interpreting the world before us. Wisdom is not necessarily fixed, and we ought to use Socratic ignorance to approach the world without the inherited bias of our cultures. With irony, we will be able to embrace the not knowing. We need to question the world knowing we may not find an answer. The moment we stop questioning and just accept the easy answers, we succumb to ignorance. We must use irony to laugh at ourselves in order to improve ourselves and to laugh at society in order to improve the world. The work was submitted to the Philosophical Faculty at the University of Copenhagen on June 3rd 1841. Kierkegaard had asked for his dissertation to be ready from the printer’s in ample time for him to defend it before the new semester commenced. This presumably because he had already planned his sojourn to Berlin to hear the master philosopher Schelling. On September 16th, the book was issued, and on September 29th, the defense would take place. The entire defense, including a two hour long lunch break, took seven hours, during which ”an unusually full auditorium” would listen to the official opponents F.C. Sibbern and P.O. Brøndsted as well as the seven “ex auditorio” opponents F.C. Petersen, J.L. Heiberg, P.C. Kierkegaard, Fr. Beck, F.P.J. Dahl, H .J.Thue og C.F. Christens, not to mention Kierkegaard himself. Two weeks later, on October 12th, Kierkegaard broke off his engagement with Regine Olsen (for the implications of this event, see the section about Regine in vol. II). The work appeared in two states – one with the four pages of “Theses”, for academics of the university, whereas the copies without the theses were intended for ordinary sale. These sales copies also do not have “Udgivet for Magistergraden” and “theologisk Candidat” on the title-page. The present copy is one of the sales-copies without theses. Himmelstrup 8 The present copy is no. 11 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎

‎Enten - Eller. Et Livs=Fragment udgivet af Victor Eremita. Anden Udgave. Første Deel, indeholdende A.’s Papirer + Anden Deel, indeholdende B.’s Papirer, Breve til A. - [A TRULY MAGNIFICENT COPY SPLENDIDLY PRESERVED IN COMPLETELY ORIGINAL CONDITION]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1849. 8vo. XIV, (2), 320" (4), 250 pp + final blank. Both volumes in one – the original blue cardboard binding (“hollanderet bind”) with the original printed paper title-label (preserved in its entirety) to the spine. Slight loss to the paper to upper capital and to lower front hinge, but amazingly well preserved, fresh, and crisp. Completely uncut (23,5 x 14,5 cm., making it ab. 1,5 + 1 cm larger than other well margined copies). Some brownspotting (as always), mostly quite light. Old owner’s name to inside of front board. Housed in a beautiful marbled paper box with a richly gilt red Morocco spine. The gilding is in the style of Kierkegaard’s most lavishly decorated full calf bindings and with the title in gilt Gothic lettering. The box is signed “Anker Kysters Efterf. And the gilding by Hagel Olsen. Front board with the gilt super ex libris of the previous owner.‎

‎A truly magnificent copy of the second issue of Either-Or truly splendidly preserved in completely original condition. The spines of the original Kierkegaard cardboard bindings are always just thin paper directly glued on the block, making them extremely fragile, especially on the thicker volumes (as Enten-Eller and Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift). If one finds these original bindings, the spines are almost always more or less disintegrated, and the original paper-labels are hardly ever preserved. Here, we not only have an extremely well-preserved copy with very little of the paper missing of an original binding on the bulkiest Kierkegaard-title there is, with the original printed paper title-label preserved in its entirety, we have the second issue of Either-Or in its completely original condition, bound in one volume, as evidently it came from the publishers. This is an extreme rarity! Over the decades, we have been able to locate two copies of the first edition of Either-Or in the original bindings, but we have never come across a copy of the seminally important second issue in the original binding. This is possibly a unique preservation. Kierkegaard’s magnum opus Either-Or is considered the foundational work of existentialism and doubtlessly the most famous work by the greatest Scandinavian philosopher of all times, who ""is now generally considered to be, however eccentric, one of the most important Christian philosophers"" (PMM 314). Kierkegaard's monumental magnum opus seminally influenced later as well as contemporary philosophy and ranks as one of the most important works of philosophy of modern times. Either-Or is the earliest of Kierkegaard’s major works and the work with which he begins his pseudonymous authorship. Kierkegaard’s pseudonymity is an entire subject unto its own. The various cover names he uses play a significant role in his way of communicating and are essential to the understanding of his philosophical and religious messages. And it all properly begins here, with his groundbreaking magnum opus. Conjuring up two distinctive figures with diverging beliefs and modes of life – the aesthetic “A” of Part One, and the ethical B (note that this is the first “pseudonym” that Kierkegaard uses, in his earliest articles – no. I above)/Judge Vilhelm of Part Two, Kierkegaard presents us with the most basic reflections on the search for a meaningful existence, seen from two completely different philosophical views. This masterpiece of duality explores the foundational conflict between the ethical and the aesthetical, providing us along the way with the now so famous contemplations on music (Mozart), drama, boredom, pleasures, virtues, and, probably most famously, seduction (and rejection – The Seducer’s Diary). It is primarily Judge Vilhelm from Part Two of Either-Or that has bestowed upon Kierkegaard the reputation as the Father of Existentialism. His emphasis on taking ownership of oneself and the importance of making choices has made him the (first) personification of Existentialism and the idea that one does not passively develop into the self that he or she should be or ought to become. Kierkegaard went to great lengths to ensure that the public would not know the identity of the author was of Either-Or. He even had the draft of the work done by several hands, so that employees at the printer’s would also be deceived. Despite his efforts, however, it did not take long for the public to guess that Kierkegaard had written this astounding work. But Kierkegaard himself kept up the façade and did not accept authorship until several years later. Nothing Kierkegaard did was left to chance, which his carefully chosen pseudonyms also reflect. This also spills over in his presentation-inscriptions, which follow as strict a pattern as the pseudonyms themselves – he never signed himself the author, if his Christian name was not listed as the author on the title-page. And seeing that he had not accepted authorship of Either-Or and is not mentioned by name anywhere on the title-page (also not as the editor nor publisher as with the other pseudonymous works), he was not able to give away copies of his magnum opus, which is why no presentation-copy of the first edition exists. The appearance of the second edition of this monumental work was, naturally, carefully planned. Either-Or first appeared in 1843, and due to the great demand for the work, which had originally only been printed in ca 525 copies, it had quickly been sold out" but Kierkegaard refused to have it reprinted. In 1849, finally, he decided to let it appear again, in a textually unchanged version. When the second edition appeared (recte second issue), Kierkegaard had meanwhile owned up to the authorship of Either-Or. He had done so in 1846, in his Concluding Unscientific Postscript to The Philosophical Fragments (own translation): “For the sake of manners and etiquette I hereby acknowledge, what can hardly in reality be of interest to anybody to know, that I am, as one says, the author of Either-Or (Victor Eremita), Copenhagen in February 1843...”. Now, finally, Kierkegaard could give away his magnum opus! In his Papers from 1849, Kierkegaard states (own translation): “The poets here at home each received a copy of Either-Or. I thought it my duty and now I was able to do it because now one cannot reasonably claim that a conspiracy is made concerning the book. -because the book is now old and its crisis over. Of course they were given the copy from Victor Eremita...” (Pap., X1A 402). Naturally, because “as little as I in Either-Or is the Seductor or the Assessor, as little am I the publisher Victor Eremita, exactly as little he is a poetically-real subjective thinker, as he is also found in “in vino veritas.” “ (the postscript to the Postscript, 1846) But he only sent few copies to very choice people, fewer than he did most of his other works, and only three copies have been identified (to Henrik Hertz, Christian Winther, and Hans Christian Andersen). Three further copies in gift-bindings corresponding to these have been identified, but in these copies, the leaf with the presentation-inscription has also been torn out. He must have given away yet another copy – one presumably not being on vellum-paper, as, according to his own notes, he had asked the printers for six copies on vellum paper (see Pap., Vol. X, part five, p. (203).) -, making the total known (albeit not all identified) number of copies seven. “Two copies in a binding corresponding to Hertz’s copy have been traced, but in both, the front free end-paper has been torn out. It leads one to think that the completely unusual presentation inscription (signed by Victor Eremita!), for the immediate posterity has been of such a curious nature that it has tempted autograph hunters on several occasions.” (Tekstspejle, p. 97, translated from Danish). “The other book, of which the recipients stand out is the second edition of Either-Or, which appeared in May 1849. The first edition from 1843 had been sold out for several years, but Kierkegaard had refused to have it reprinted. In our context we must remember that in 1843, he was unable to send gift copies of the first edition… When, in 1843, he lets Either-Or be reprinted in textually unaltered form, he has meanwhile (1846) admitted to authorship of the work. But the wording on the title-pages of the two leaves does not allow him to sign the dedication “from the Author” or “from the publisher” or the like.” (Tekstspejle p. 96, translated from Danish). Either-Or is now not only the title of Kierkegaard’s most famous and widely read work, it is also a phrase that summarizes much of the thinking for which he is best known and a cornerstone of what we now characterize as Existentialism. The first edition caused a sensation. The second issue (termed “edition”, although it is textually unaltered) is not only the first edition of the work to appear after Kierkegaard had acknowledged authorship of it and thus also confirmed being one and the same with his most famous pseudonym, it is also the first of Kierkegaard’s works to appear in a second edition or issue. The second edition of the work is thus also of the utmost importance and is one of the only important second editions of any of Kierkegaard’s works. PMM: 314 Himmelstrup 21‎

‎Atten opbyggelige Taler af S. Kierkegaard. - [EXCEEDINGLY SCARCE IN THE ORIGINAL BINDING, WITH THE ORIGINAL TITLE-LABEL]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Philipsen, 1843-45. 8vo. (4), 52 + 62 (+ 1 blank leaf) + 84 + 59 (including the blank leaf between the title-page and the preface!) + 70 (+ 1 blank leaf) + 111 pp. Completely uncut in the original brownish grey boards with original printed title-label to spine (fully intact). Boards a bit brownspotted and a larger damp stain to top of front board. A couple of smaller stains (lacquer or wax) to spine. A few horizontal creases to spine with paper almost invisibly glued back on to hold tight. Occasional brownspotting, mostly to the first and last leaves. But overall splendidly preserved.‎

‎A truly magnificent copy of the first edition of this very scarce Kierkegaard-title, in completely original condition with all of the original printed title-label preserved, and fully complete with the joint title-page, contents, all the half-titles, dedications, blanks, etc. This Kierkegaard-title is rare in itself, with much less than 278 copies printed in all, but it is utterly amazing to find this exceedingly rare book in original state like here. Only very few copies are left in the original binding, which we have only seen once before. The spines of the original Kierkegaard cardboard bindings are always just thin paper directly glued on the block, making them extremely fragile. If one finds these original bindings, the spines are almost always more or less disintegrated. The present copy is a rare exception that furthermore has the original title-label, which is of the utmost scarcity. To our knowledge, only one other copy in the original binding has been located. Apart from the other copy we have seen of this work in the original binding, the present copy is also the only original Kierkegaard-binding we have seen that is not in the usual blue “hollanderet” cardboard binding, but plain brown. No other such copy has been registered for sale, and no other such copy, to our knowledge, is registered in any institution. Furthermore, this seems to be the only copy to have surfaced so far, which has preserved the original printed title-label in its entirety. As far as we know, it has been recorded no-where, due to its extreme scarcity. Kierkegaard’s Upbuilding (or Edifying) Discourses were published over the course of two years, in 1843 and 1844. In all, 18 Upbuilding Discourses were published, divided over six publications, namely: Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843 Three Upbuilding Discourses from 1843 Four Upbuilding Discourses from 1843 Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1844 Three Upbuilding Discourses from 1844 Four Upbuilding Discourses from 1844 Each of these publications accompanied one of the main pseudonymous works, beginning with Either-Or in 1843. As opposed to his major philosophical works, the religious upbuilding discourses actually bear the name of the author on the title-page. Of course, this was by no means incidental. While the pseudonymous works could raise the question of the religiousness of the author, the parallelly written religious discourses stress the fact that we are dealing with an author, who was religious from the very beginning – an essential fact that Kierkegaard wished to stress for those interested in his authorship. In his journals, Kierkegaard clearly states that the religious discourses are as significant in his oeuvre as a whole as are the larger pseudonymous works, “I began with “Either-Or” and two upbuilding discourses...” he says, and explains that he intended the upbuilding, the religious, to advance, and that he wanted to show “that the writer was not an aesthetic author who in the course of time grew older and for that reason became religious”. (Journals, IX A 227). He was religious all along, also during all of the major philosophical publications that were not written in his name. The fact that every major pseudonymous work – up until Concluding Unscientific Postscript appeared and revealed the identity of the real author – was accompanied by one of these small Upbuilding Discourses, bears testament to the pivotal role they play in Kierkegaard’s philosophical development. Furthermore, while Kierkegaard could not present anyone with copies of his pseudonymous works (as explained above), he could indeed give away presentation-copies of his accompanying Upbuilding Discourses, which he then did. The Upbuilding Discourses are particularly interesting in several regards, one being that it is in the course of the printing of these that Kierkegaard changes his publisher. Ever since Kierkegaard had chosen to publish his first book himself, he had had his books on commission with the leading Copenhagen publisher Reitzel (the sole exception being his thesis, the Irony). That was also the case with Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843. But for some reason, the following five publications of Upbuilding Discourses did not appear with Reitzel, but with P.G. Philipsen instead. We do not know the exact reason for this change in publishers, as the commission was exactly the same for the two. Whereas Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843 had sold relatively well, the Three and Four Upbuilding Discourses from 1843 did not sell well. A mere 102 and 104 copies respectively out of a commission issue of 300 were sold. In an attempt at making money on these discourses in spite of the poor sales numbers, Philipsen offers to buy the unsold copies of Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, buys a sales issue of 300 copies of the Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1844, and makes the same agreement with Kierkegaard for the following two Discourse-publications. Sales numbers are still poor, however, and in the spring of 1845, only ca 100 copies of each of the 1844 Discourse publications have been sold. The printing issue of each was about 500, and Philipsen’s sales issue 300 thus, both Philipsen and Kierkegaard had large numbers of each Discourse-publication left, and in May 1845, they make a new deal. Philipsen buys the remainder issues of all six Discourse-publications, including the 278 copies of Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843 from Reitzel. Philipsen has a joint title-page printed, along with a contents-leaf, and now issues the seminal Kierkegaard-publication that is no. 85 in the bibliography (Himmelstrup), namely Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses – all six publications, constituting all eighteen Upbuilding Discourses collected in one book. Seeing that there were 278 copies left of the Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, a maximum of 278 copies of Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses can have been made, making it one of the scarcest Kierkegaard-books. The actual number is certainly lower than 278, though, probably quite a bit lower, seeing that Philipsen continued to sell the separate publications, all copies of which he then evidently did not include in the Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses. The individual pamphlets, of course, are even scarcer, with a maximum of 232 copies of Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843 and somewhere between 100 and 150 copies of the others. We know from the Erindringsbog fra Bianco Luno 1844 that Kierkegaard had 506 copies of Four Upbuilding Discourses 1844 printed, six of them on fine paper for presentation. Seeing that we have already established the clear thread of identity throughout all six publications, we must assume that the other pamphlets were printed in the same numbers. And we have the record of the remainder issues that Philipsen buys in 1845, which lets us conclude of the Upbuilding Discourses, that, by that time, 222 copies of Two 1843 139 copies of Three 1843 130 copies of Four 1843 120 copies of Two 1844 92 copies of Three 1844 96 copies of Four 1844 were sold out of the total number of original issues. In other words, these are extremely scarce. Not least in the original wrappers or bindings. The scarcest Kierkegaard-title that exists, however, will be found in the continuation of the printing history of the Upbuilding Discourses. It is the mythically rare title of Sixteen Upbuilding Discourses, which Philipsen issued in 1852, when the Two Upbuilding Discourses had been sold out and it was no longer possible to collect Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses. Thus, Philipsen had yet another title-page printed, this time with Sixteen Upbuilding Discourses as the title and the year 1843-45 on it, along with a new index-leaf he issued this, the scarcest of all Kierkegaard-titles, in March 1852. “It is not known how large the issue was, but it cannot have been more than 83, seeing that that was what was left of Three Upbuilding Discourses from 1843.” (Tekstspejle p. 54, translated from Danish). The idea of the Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses (let alone the Sixteen) was not Kierkegaard’s. He had agreed to the Eighteen, but it was not his intended project with the Upbuilding Discourses. Therefore, he wished for the book not to be reviewed, and he naturally did not give away any copies of the Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses, and of course not the Sixteen either, only the individual pamphlets. In all, seven presentation-copies of the different Upbuilding Discourses are registered, all being for either Heiberg or Nielsen. Curiously, neither Eighteen nor Sixteen Upbuilding Discourses were to be found in Kierkegaard’s book collection after his death. All the individual pamphlets were, however, along with a copy of the first nine Upbuilding Discourses – i.e. the three publications from 1843 – bound together. For more on the conundrum of the actual number of copies of the Upbuilding Discourses, see the Preface by Flemming Chr. Nielsen in Girsel’s Kierkegaard-catalogue, p. 19. Himmelstrup 85‎

‎En literair Anmeldelse. To Tidsaldre, Novelle af Forfattern til ”En Hverdagshistorie”, udgiven af J. L. Heiberg. Kbhv. Reitzel. 1845, anmeldt af S. Kierkegaard. - [MAGNIFICENT SILVER GIFT-BINDING ]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1846. 8vo. 114 pp. Splendidly bound in full patterned silver-moiré gift-binding with all edges gilt. Green endpapers. A bit of brownspotting. Spine, edges, and corners worn and the silver dulled. But a splendid binding, nonetheless. With Karl Madsen’s ex libris, on which he has added in hand “Eksemplaret har tilhørt Joh. Ludv. Heiberg.” (i.e. the copy has belonged to Johan Ludvig Heiberg) to inside of front board. Inside of front board with previous owner’s neat pencil annotation explaining that this is the copy that Kierkegaard sent to Heiberg with the wish of having it expedited to the author of Two Ages, alias Thomasine Gyllembourg.‎

‎First edition, magnificent copy in original silver-gift binding, with all likelihood be the copy that Kierkegaard intended for Thomasine Gyllembourg, mediated by Heiberg. Having finished his “first” authorship with his monumental “Unscientific Concluding Postscript”, the “Literary Review of Thomasine Gyllembourg’s Two Ages” invokes Kierkegaard’s second authorship. The Literary Review is a classic within the conservative critique of modern society. It is here that Kierkegaard presents his most concise and significant analysis of modern society as it shows itself through the press, in the relationship between public authorities and the subjects. The work was printed amidst the Corsair-Affair, which was a defining event in Kierkegaard’s life and work. Having been unbearably ridiculed in periodical The Corsair since January 1846, Kierkegaard uses his Literary Review of Two Ages (printed March 30th, 1846) to convey his thoughts on the public and the individual’s relationship to it. Thomasine Gyllembourg was the mother of Johan Ludvig Heiberg and a magnificent author herself. She was one of the most productive authors of the Danish Golden Age, despite having had her debut late in life, at the age of 53. She was the founder of Danish feminist literature, writing about the position of women in society and in the home. Her novel “Two Ages” portrays one of her eminent Madonna figures, Claudine, who, despite her status as seduced and abandoned single mother stays true to herself, her beliefs, and her role as a mother. Claudine’s sexual liberty of the Revolutionary age is contrasted to the gentle and modest heroine of the present age, whose identity is in caring for the home. As such, Two Ages opposes the ideals of freedom from the age of the French Revolution with the bourgeois ideals of the Golden Age. In his review, Kierkegaard is mainly concerned with the contrast between the two ages in the novel – that of The French Revolution, and that contemporary with the novel. Expressed with Kierkegaard’s concepts, the age of revolution is passionate and the present age dispassionate" Kierkegaard ends up attacking the conformity of the present age and the de-individualization of people into an abstract public. The inanimate beliefs and views of the present age become especially fatal in the daily press. As a reader, one is no longer a passionate individual, but part of an anonymous and diffuse public audience. Not until the single individual has established an ethical stance to the whole world as it is, can there be any question of genuinely uniting. This is a clear reference to the ridicule Kierkegaard himself experienced due to the Corsair and a harsh verdict upon the Copenhagen audience. But it is not only Kierkegaard’s characterization of mass media that has made “A Literary Review” a conservative classic within the critique of modern society, so has Kierkegaard’s description of how the dispassionate age has subverted all social hierarchies and put into question all the relative strength of the different powers of society. This magnificent work is one of Kierkegaard’s most political and that which gives us his clearest analysis of modern society. Two presentation-copies of the work have been registered (one for Giødwad, one for Madvig), and Kierkegaard had one copy in his library, which was sold at the auction of his books after he died. We also know that Kierkegaard gave a copy to Johan Ludvig Heiberg, in his capacity of publisher of Two Ages”, to pass on to the anonymous author of the work, who, as we know, happened to be Heiberg’s mother. The provenance, although it seems likely, has not been definitively established. We know that the copy belonged to Karl Madsen, as it has his ex libris, and we know that he bought a good deal of Mrs. Heiberg’s books after she died, among them quite a few gift-and presentation-copies from Kierkegaard to Heiberg (see Gert Posselt’s Preface in Girsel's Kierkegaard-catalogue p. 13). It is also clear that the book is in a gift-binding and is bound exactly like Kierkegaard’s own copy of the book. See Aarbog for Bogvenner 1925, where Karl Madsen describes how he came to buy a large part of the books from Mrs. Heiberg and also mentions Kierkegaard presentation-copies. But the present copy is not mentioned specifically. The present copy is no. 50 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎

‎To Taler ved Altergangen om Fredagen. Af S. Kierkegaard. - [EXTREMELY RARE GIFT-COPY]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1851. 8vo. 32 pp. Original gift-binding of the black glitted paper, all edges gilt, and printed on fine paper. Capitals chipped, front hinge with a bit of wear and a few smaller spits on front board towards hinge restored with black colour. Light overall wear. Light brownspotting. ‎

‎First edition - one of the extremely rare gift-copies, either a presentation-copy given by Kierkegaard to one of his dedicatees, or one of the copies he had in his possession, when he died. This small pamphlet constitutes a turning point in Kierkegaard’s life and work. Twice in his career, Kierkegaard considered his authorship over. The first time was with the publication of “Concluding Unscientific Postscript” from 1846. The second termination of his authorship came with “Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays”, which appeared on August 6, 1851, marking the end of that which we consider his second authorship. As we know, from 1848, Kierkegaard stops altogether making lavish presentation-bindings and begins standardizing his presentation practice. From then on, he only gives away copies of his books in the black glitted paper-bindings. “Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays” not only marks an authorial turn in Kierkegaard’s career, it also marks a bibliophilic and more personal one, namely the discontinuation of writing presentation-inscriptions in his works. “One Upbuilding Discourse” from the previous year is the last work in which Kierkegaard wrote a handwritten presentation inscription. Thus, no presentation-inscription of the present work exists. We also do not have a letter accompanying a copy of this work, so even though Kierkegaard did give away copies of his works from 1851 and onwards, as is evidenced from the presentation-bindings that he had made, it is extremely rare to find copies of the works after 1850 in a presentation-binding, the dedicatee of which can be traced. One can ask why Kierkegaard stopped writing inscriptions in his books, but we will probably not find a precise answer. We find it most likely that the changed practice signals the fact that with the present publication, he considered his career over and that it would thus be inappropriate to continue the practice of written presentation inscriptions. Some consider it an aesthetic choice. Whatever the exact reason, it was undoubtedly a very well-thought-out decision that can be compared to his decision of how to word the preface to the work. As Cappelørn notes in his “Forligelsen” (p. 477), “That it caused Kierkegaard great troubles to give the preface exactly the wording that he wished, is understandable. This was the preface for the writing that was to end his authorship. In a journal entry, presumably from May 1849, he writes, what he had also previously hinted at: that his understanding of the entire authorship “points definitively to Discourses at the Communion on Fridays”. That apprehension was finally fulfilled in August 1851 with the publication of Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays.” (translated from Danish). That Kierkegaard himself saw the present work as the conclusion of his authorship is also evident from his preface: “An authorship that began with Either/Or and advanced step by step seeks here its consummating place of rest at the foot of again underlining the fact that this constitutes the conclusion of his authorship and again embracing all the pseudonymous works in this religious conclusion. The altar, where the author, personally most aware of his own imperfection and guilt, certainly does not call himself a witness to the truth but only a singular kind of poet and thinker who, «without authority,» has had nothing new to bring but «has wanted to read through once again, if possible in a more inward way, the original text of individual human existence-relationships, the old, familiar text handed down from the fathers.” (cf. my post script to Concluding Postscript”).” (SKS 12, p. 281). Kierkegaard’s reference to the postscript of Concluding Unscientific Postscript is interesting in determining his own view of these two works as being on par with each other in their concluding manner – and in their underlining the equivalence between Kierkegaard himself and his pseudonyms. It is highly interesting that Kierkegaard now, in his “final work”, refers to his pseudonymity in the preface, although this is a religious discourse. What is also interesting about this concluding work is the printed dedication, which reads “To One Unnamed, whose name shall one day be named, is dedicated along with this little work the whole of the authorship from the very beginning”, The “unnamed” is Regine, with whom Kierkegaard considered reconciliation on numerous occasions. In his journals, he wrote much about her and his thoughts about reconciling with her during the period when writing Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays. As we know, the reconciliation never took place, but that did not prevent Kierkegaard from dedicating his entire authorship to her with the present publication. Although Kierkegaard had begun working on the publication already in 1849, “Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays” appeared simultaneously with “On My Work as an Author”, on August 6, 1851. Kierkegaard had five copies of the work in his collection when he died (see Auction Catalogue no. 2173-77), all in black glitted paper bindings. Himmelstrup 130. The present copy is no. 83 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎

‎Enten – Eller. Et Livs=Fragment udgivet af Victor Eremita. Anden Udgave. Første Deel, indeholdende A.’s Papirer + Anden Deel, indeholdende B.’s Papirer, Breve til A.‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1849. 8vo. In contemporary half calf. Spine with wear and scratches. Back hinge partly split. Previous owner's name ""P. O. Bugge / 1852"". First and last leaves slightly browned, otherwise internally nice and clean. XIV, (2), 320" (4), 250 pp + final blank.‎

‎Second edition of Kierkegaard’s Either-Or, his magnum opus, widely regarded as a foundational work of existentialism and among the most celebrated writings of the greatest Scandinavian philosopher. Kierkegaard is “now generally considered to be, however eccentric, one of the most important Christian philosophers” (PMM 314). Kierkegaard's monumental magnum opus seminally influenced later as well as contemporary philosophy and ranks as one of the most important works of philosophy of modern times. Either-Or is the earliest of Kierkegaard’s major works and the work with which he begins his pseudonymous authorship. Kierkegaard’s pseudonymity is an entire subject unto its own. The various cover names he uses play a significant role in his way of communicating and are essential to the understanding of his philosophical and religious messages. And it all properly begins here, with his groundbreaking magnum opus. Conjuring up two distinctive figures with diverging beliefs and modes of life – the aesthetic “A” of Part One, and the ethical B (note that this is the first “pseudonym” that Kierkegaard uses, in his earliest articles – no. I above)/Judge Vilhelm of Part Two, Kierkegaard presents us with the most basic reflections on the search for a meaningful existence, seen from two completely different philosophical views. This masterpiece of duality explores the foundational conflict between the ethical and the aesthetical, providing us along the way with the now so famous contemplations on music (Mozart), drama, boredom, pleasures, virtues, and, probably most famously, seduction (and rejection – The Seducer’s Diary). It is primarily Judge Vilhelm from Part Two of Either-Or that has bestowed upon Kierkegaard the reputation as the Father of Existentialism. His emphasis on taking ownership of oneself and the importance of making choices has made him the (first) personification of Existentialism and the idea that one does not passively develop into the self that he or she should be or ought to become. Kierkegaard went to great lengths to ensure that the public would not know the identity of the author was of Either-Or. He even had the draft of the work done by several hands, so that employees at the printer’s would also be deceived. Despite his efforts, however, it did not take long for the public to guess that Kierkegaard had written this astounding work. But Kierkegaard himself kept up the façade and did not accept authorship until several years later. Nothing Kierkegaard did was left to chance, which his carefully chosen pseudonyms also reflect. This also spills over in his presentation-inscriptions, which follow as strict a pattern as the pseudonyms themselves – he never signed himself the author, if his Christian name was not listed as the author on the title-page. And seeing that he had not accepted authorship of Either-Or and is not mentioned by name anywhere on the title-page (also not as the editor nor publisher as with the other pseudonymous works), he was not able to give away copies of his magnum opus, which is why no presentation-copy of the first edition exists. The appearance of the second edition of this monumental work was, naturally, carefully planned. Either-Or first appeared in 1843, and due to the great demand for the work, which had originally only been printed in ca 525 copies, it had quickly been sold out but Kierkegaard refused to have it reprinted. In 1849, finally, he decided to let it appear again, in a textually unchanged version. When the second edition appeared (recte second issue), Kierkegaard had meanwhile owned up to the authorship of Either-Or. He had done so in 1846, in his Concluding Unscientific Postscript to The Philosophical Fragments (own translation): “For the sake of manners and etiquette I hereby acknowledge, what can hardly in reality be of interest to anybody to know, that I am, as one says, the author of Either-Or (Victor Eremita), Copenhagen in February 1843...”. Now, finally, Kierkegaard could give away his magnum opus! In his Papers from 1849, Kierkegaard states (own translation): “The poets here at home each received a copy of Either-Or. I thought it my duty and now I was able to do it because now one cannot reasonably claim that a conspiracy is made concerning the book. -because the book is now old and its crisis over. Of course they were given the copy from Victor Eremita...” (Pap., X1A 402). Naturally, because “as little as I in Either-Or is the Seductor or the Assessor, as little am I the publisher Victor Eremita, exactly as little he is a poetically-real subjective thinker, as he is also found in “in vino veritas.” “ (the postscript to the Postscript, 1846) Either-Or is now not only the title of Kierkegaard’s most famous and widely read work, it is also a phrase that summarizes much of the thinking for which he is best known and a cornerstone of what we now characterize as Existentialism. The first edition caused a sensation. The second issue (termed “edition”, although it is textually unaltered) is not only the first edition of the work to appear after Kierkegaard had acknowledged authorship of it and thus also confirmed being one and the same with his most famous pseudonym, it is also the first of Kierkegaard’s works to appear in a second edition or issue. The second edition of the work is thus also of the utmost importance and is one of the only important second editions of any of Kierkegaard’s works. PMM: 314 Himmelstrup 21 ‎

‎Af en endnu Levendes Papirer. Udgivet mod hans Villie. - [KIERKEGAARD'S FIRST BOOK]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, 1838. Ubeskåret, i et senere blankt omslag. Gennemgående skjold i øverste venstre hjørne, overvejende ganske svagt. Første og sidste blade mest påvirkede. X, 79pp.‎

‎Originaludgaven af Kierkegaards debut, -værket i hvilket han skarpt kritiserer H.C. Andersen, og i hvilket inspirationen fra Poul Martin Møller (til hvem han dedikerede værket ""Begrebet Angest"" - den eneste uden for familien, der er blevet beæret med en trykt dedikation af Kierkegaard) formenlig er tydeligst at spore. Den specielle titel kan med en vis rimelighed siges at hentyde til en villet videreførelse af den beundrede og på tidspunktet for udgivelsen netop afdøde Poul Martin Møllers nærmest upublicerede produktion. Den ""endnu Levende"" skulle således være ""Danmarks Gæde i Glæden over Danmark"", ""Mindet i den danske Sommer"", Poul Martin Møller, den mand, der ved sin person har inspireret Kierkegaard mere end nogen anden. Himmelstrup 6.Uncut in a very nice later halfleatherbdg. of dark red morocco w. green marbled paper and dark red gilt leather-title-label on front board. Gilt lines to back. (Oscar Jacobsen). Some brownspotting. X + 79pp.First edition of Kierkegaard's first work" -the work in which he sharply critisizes Hans Christian Andersen and ridicules the genre of fairy tales in general.‎

‎Atten opbyggelige Taler.‎

‎K., 1843-1845. 8vo. Smukt lidt senere hldrbd.m. rig rygforgyldn., ophøjet ""bind"", dannet af heftesnoren. 2. blad (indhold) repareret. Pp 1-50 m. svagt skjold for neden, ellers pæn. (Iv)+52+62+84+59+70+111pp.‎

‎Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 85.First edition of Kierkegaard's important eighteen upbuilding discourses, which comprise his two, three, and four upbuilding discourses from the years 1843-45, with the joint title-page of all eighteen. The work constitutes Kierkegaard's religious works, which supplement his theological and philosophical ones.The first upbuilding discourses were published the same year as Either-Or, and it is interesting to note that in opposition to his major philosophical works, the religious upbuilding discourses actually bear the name of the author on the title-page, -a fact that was by no means incidental. While the pseudonymous works could make one doubt the religiousness of the author, the parallelly written religious discourses stress the fact that we are dealing with an author, who was religious from the very beginning, -a fact that Kierkegaard also wished to establish himself"" in his journals he clearly states that the religious discourses bear as much significance for his work as a whole as do the larger pseudonymous works, ""I began with ""Either-Or"" and two upbuilding discourses..."" he says, and explains that he intended the upbuilding, the religious, to advance, and that he wanted to show ""that the writer was not an aesthetic author who in the course of time grew older and for that reason became religious"" (Journals, IX A 227).The importance of the upbuilding discourses and the close relationship they have with the major works and Kierkegaard's philosophical development also becomes evident with the fact that every pseudonymous work was accompanied by a little collection of ""upbuilding discourses"" until ""Concluding Postscript"" appeared.‎

‎Atten opbyggelige Taler.‎

‎Kjøbenhavn [Copenhagen], P. G. Philipsens Forlag, 1843-1845. 8vo. Bound uncut in a recent pastiche cardboardbinding, imitating the original brown cardboard binding, in which it was issued. Printed pastice paper label to spine. Some brownspotting as always, due to the paper quality. (4), 52, 62, 84, 59 (recte 57 pp., i.e. without the blank leaf between the title-page and the preface), 70, 111 pp. Complete with all the titles and the joint title-page (without the blank leaf after the preface of ""To opbyggelige Taler, 1844"" - which is not called for and hardly ever present).‎

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‎First edition of Kierkegaard's important eighteen upbuilding discourses, which comprise his two, three, and four upbuilding discourses from the years 1843-45, with the joint title-page of all eighteen. The work constitutes Kierkegaard's religious works, which supplement his theological and philosophical ones.The first upbuilding discourses were published the same year as Either-Or, and it is interesting to note that in opposition to his major philosophical works, the religious upbuilding discourses actually bear the name of the author on the title-page, a fact that was by no means incidental. While the pseudonymous works could make one doubt the religiousness of the author, the parallelly written religious discourses stress the fact that we are dealing with an author, who was religious from the very beginning, a fact that Kierkegaard also wished to establish himself"" in his journals he clearly states that the religious discourses bear as much significance for his work as a whole as do the larger pseudonymous works, ""I began with ""Either-Or"" and two upbuilding discourses..."" he says, and explains that he intended the upbuilding, the religious, to advance, and that he wanted to show ""that the writer was not an esthetic author who in the course of time grew older and for that reason became religious"" (Journals, IX A 227).The importance of the upbuilding discourses and the close relationship they have with the major works and Kierkegaard's philosophical development also becomes evident with the fact that every pseudonymous work was accompanied by a little collection of ""upbuilding discourses"" until ""Concluding Postscript"" appeared.Himmelstrup 85.‎

‎”Ypperstepræsten” - ”Tolderen” - ”Synderinden”, tre Taler ved Altergangen om Fredagen. Af S. Kierkegaard. - [MAGNIFICENT COPY IN COMPLETELY ORIGINAL CONDITION]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1849. 8vo. 42 pp. Uncut in the original printed wrappers. The front wrapper with the text of the title-page (all except the year) repeated inside a double-line border, inside which a line-border with ornamental cornerpieces. Back-wrapper with the year inside the same frame. The printed spine, preserved in its entirety and also completely unrestored, with Gothic lettering and small printed ornamentations. A vertical strip of ca 1 cm towards the spine on both front and back wrapper faded, but only here. The spine is also not faded. A brown discolouration to lower blank margin throughout. Otherwise just light occasional brownspotting. “a. m.” in contemporary hand to front wrapper. Housed in beautiful marbled paper box with a grey morocco spine with gilt Gothic lettering and small gilt ornamentations. Gilt super ex libris to front. Signed in Gilt lettering to inside of spine: Anker Kysters Eftf. and gilt by Hagel Olsen.‎

‎A truly magnificent copy of the first edition in the extremely rare original wrappers, completely unrestored and with the original printed spine also preserved in its entirety, which we have never seen before. This important publication is an essential part of Kierkegaard’s upbuilding production, written and published under his own name. It consists of three discourses at the communion on Fridays and is the upbuilding religious companion to Sickness Unto Death that was published pseudonymously earlier in the year, thus continuing the practice that Kierkegaard began with Either-Or (and otherwise ended with Concluding Unscientific Postscript), that each pseudonymous work would be accompanied by an upbuilding publication. As Kierkegaard states in his journal from October 1849 after having written that his “three discourses” (i.e. “The High Priest”, “The Publican” and “The sinner”) “are now delivered to the printer 1) I must find a point of rest, but I cannot rest on a pseudonym and these [discourses] correspond to Anti-Climacus and the position of Discourses for the Communion on Fridays is once and for all designated as the point of the rest for my works. 2) Since at present people are focusing on my pseudonym (Climacus), it is important that there be emphasis in the direction of edification. Once again, how loving it is of Governance that what I need and am to use always lies ready. 3) “The Preface[“] calls to mind the Two Edif. Discourses of 1843 it is important to me to emphasize that I began as a religious author right at the outset" it is important for the repetition.” (NB 13: 79). In fact, the reference back to Kierkegaard’s debut as an upbuilding author, in Two Upbuilding Discourses from 1843, plays a dominant role in the present work. The preface here not merely alludes to the preface of the first upbuilding publication, it even largely quotes from it. Kierkegaard clearly perceived the present publication as beginning the second cycle of Upbuilding Discourses (see NB 12:133). It is also worth noting that the present collection of discourses plays an important role in Kierkegaard’s continued thoughts about Regine and the relationship that he broke off. Even the dating of the preface haunted him in this regard. We know from his notebooks that first, he dated it “d. 10 Sept. 49”, but then he altered it to the 8th, then “start of”, and finally “Beginning of September 1849”. These dates all recall defining biographical incidences. It is on September 8 (1841) that Kierkegaard sought out Regine on the street, walked home with her and rushed to the Finance department to ask her father for her hand in marriage. And it was on September 10 (also 1841) that he got acceptance from both Regine and her father, so that the engagement was finalized. As we know, the engagement ended, when the tormented Kierkegaard broke it off a year later (October 12, 1842). The following years, up until the publication of “The High Priest”…, Kierkegaard considered reconciliation on numerous occasions. Thus, in November 1849, he writes in his journal: “Had it been possible, the reconciliation with “her” would have happened simultaneously with the three discourses (i.e. “The High Priest”, “The Publican” – “The Woman, who was a Sinner”), which in the preface – for the sake of repetition of the entire authorship – contains the repetition of the preface to the two upbuilding discourses 1843, the work I know for certain that she read back then.” (NB 14:44). As we know, this reconciliation never took place, accounting for the two dates of engagement being erased. Kierkegaard’s upbuilding discourses were of immense importance to him, though to his great disappointment, they were partly neglected by his contemporaries in favour of his more known philosophical works. Whereas his philosophical works were meant to insinuate themselves into the minds of men, his upbuilding discourses, which accompanied the pseudonymous works, formed a contrast to them by being direct and religious. They were meant to offer comfort to the reader, to be exactly that which they were entitled – upbuilding. The three Communion-speeches in the present collection are theologically centered around the meaning of substitution, the dialectic of self-delusion, and the transformation of the subject by conversion. Reminding us that any kind of suffering that we can face, was already faced by Christ, Kierkegaard, in the first of the discourses uses a passage from the Epistle to the Hebrews 4.15, to explain how Christ too was tempted, how he relates to human suffering, and how he as the sufferer of all sufferers is qualified to console us. The second discourse, The Publican, is based on the Scripture passage in Luke 18.13, where Jesus compares two kinds of attitude a person can have toward one’s own sin. In analyzing the relationship of the publican and the Pharisee to God, Kierkegaard uses the passage to address the reader and directly remind us of a theme that runs like a red thread through his religious writings: the necessity of being alone before God. In The Woman, who was a Sinner, taken from Luke 7.47 (which Kierkegaard would later use for An Upbuilding Discourse (1850), the third discourse in the publication, Kierkegaard discusses how to find solace and forgiveness, once again hovering about the theme of the self before God. It is in many ways one of Kierkegaard’s most moving pieces. Himmelstrup 120. The present copy is no. 76 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎

‎Frygt og Bæven. Dialektisk Lyrik af Johannes de Silentio. - [A SPLENDID COPY IN THE ORIGINAL BINDING]‎

‎Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1843. 8vo. VIII, 135 pp. Completely uncut in the original blue cardboard binding. Spine and front hinge neatly restored, preserving part of the original printed title-label. Brownspotting as usual. Overall a very nice copy indeed. Old owners’ names to inside of front board (N. Pedersen 18/8 1879 and C. Wegener).‎

‎A splendid copy of one of Kierkegaard's most splendid and most sought-after works in the original binding, which is extremely rare. The spines of the original Kierkegaard cardboard bindings are always just thin paper directly glued on the block, making them extremely fragile, and the original paper-labels are hardly every preserved. Although Fear and Trembling is evidently printed in the same number of copies as almost all the other works by Kierkegaard (i.e. ca 525), this is one of the most difficult of his works to find in the first edition. Perhaps later research will show whether unsold copies were destroyed, which seems unlikely, however. We know that in July or August 1847, 321 copies of Fear and Trembling had been sold. What we also know is that it is highly sought-after by collectors and much less frequently on the market than most of Kierkegaard’s other works. It is very odd that not a single copy on special paper or in a gift-binding, presentation-copy or anything like that has been located or registered. For this title, a Kierkegaard-collector will have to make do with a “normal” copy. The present copy, in the original binding, and completely uncut, is the best copy we have come across over the last many decades. FEAR AND TREMBLING is one of Kierkegaard’s most important works. And it is also one of his most difficult. It deals – in forceful brevity – with the relationship between reason and faith and provides us with Kierkegaard’s most thorough exposition of the religious stage, which he considered the most meaningful form of existence. Setting the scene in his Preface with the punchy opening lines: “Not merely in the realm of commerce but in the world of ideas as well our age is organizing a regular clearance sale. Everything is to be had at such a bargain that it is questionable whether in the end there is anybody who will want to bid.”(Preface, Walter Lowrie’s translation, 1941), Kierkegaard begins the work with a rendering of the biblical tale of Abraham and Isak from the Old Testament, using it to illustrate how religious reasons can triumph over ethical. It is here that Kierkegaard introduces the “tragic hero” and contrasts it to the “Knight of Faith”, who both ignore their own wishes for a higher good. These two essential figures epitomize the ethical and the religious and pave the way for the understanding of these stages in Kierkegaard’s philosophy. It is arguably also here that the idea of the essential leap of faith is introduced for the first time. The Knight of Faith sacrifices his son at the command of God and thus sets aside an ethical demand in in order to attain a higher goal that exists beyond the ethical. This teleological suspension of the ethical requires a leap of faith that is only possible through faith in virtue of the absurd. In many ways, Fear and Trembling is the most forceful of Kierkegaard’s works, as is also indicated by the title. Kierkegaard himself also considered it one of his most significant productions and wrote in his posthumously published Notebooks: “Oh, once I am dead, Fear and Trembling alone will be enough for an imperishable name as an author. Then it will be read, translated into foreign languages as well. The reader will almost shrink from the frightful pathos in the book.” (NB 12:147, 1849). This splendidly dense work which so magnificently weaves together existential concerns with biblical interpretation is responsible for the introduction of many of the concepts that are most fundamental to Kierkegaard’s philosophy and is essential to the understanding of his thought. Not a single presentation-copy of the work is known to exist and none has ever been registered nor identified. We know from the auction catalogue that Kierkegaard had two copies in his collection, one in “dainty binding”, but neither copy has been located. Himmelstrup 48 The present copy is no. 18 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.‎