Indb. m. den orig. hollanderede forperm i et blåt papbd. m. rygtiteletiket. hér og dér lidt plettet. ""Slutningen"" (fra s.190) lidt løsgået indvendig, dog uden fare for at ryge ud.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 105.
Kjøbenhavn, 1847. 8vo. One nice contemporary black/brown full cloth with gilt title to spine. A bit of wear to capitals and corners. Internally a very fresh and bright copy. 224, 203 pp.
First edition. Himmelstrup 105.
G.F.
LIVRE A L’ETAT DE NEUF. EXPEDIE SOUS 3 JOURS OUVRES. NUMERO DE SUIVI COMMUNIQUE AVANT ENVOI, EMBALLAGE RENFORCE. EAN:9782080161703
Paris, Gallimard, 1935. Orig. printed wrappers. 236 pp. Name on half title.
First French edition of ""Begrebet Angest"".(1844).
Paris, Le Cailllou Blance, 1947. 237 pp. Name on title.
Enclosed a handwriitten letter from the translator (2 pp.), dated 5 November 1948.
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
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.
Orig. bogtrykt omsl. Gennemgående skjold i nederste venstre hjørne.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 132.
Blåt blankt papiromsl. Plettet ekspl.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 132.
Orig. for- og bagomsl. opklæbet på pap fungerende som permer for dette hshirtbd. Lidt løs, m. stort gennemgående vandskjold.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 132.
Samt. hshirtbd. m. rygforgyldn. Øvre false lidt revnede. Øvre kapitæl lidt slidt. Bortset fra skjold i sidste halvdel, pæn. (IV)+155+64+140pp.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 101.
Indb. i et lidt senere beskedent hshirtbd. Bortset fra skjold øverst på de første 60 sider, rent ekspl.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 101.
K., 1847. Senere blåt blankt omsl. Svagt gennemgående skjold. Lettere brunplettet indimellem. (IV)+155+64+140pp.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 101.
K., 1968-78. 25 org. helshirtbd.
Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1844. Small 8vo. 164 pp. Completely uncut in the original printed light green wrappers with the text of the title-page repeated inside a frame to front board, printed author and title to spine, and the printing year within the same repeated frame to the back board. An almost untouched copy with just a tiny crease to the front wrapper and a tiny little nick to lower capital at back hinge. A bit of brownspotting due to the quality of the paper. Housed in an elegant green half morocco box with gilt lines and Gothic gilt lettering to spine. Green marbled paper boards and gilt super ex libris to front board (Anker Kysters Eftf. And gilt by Hagel Olsen).
A truly remarkable copy of the first edition, in completely original condition, in the fragile original wrappers, virtually untouched. We have seen copies in the original wrappers before, but never in this state. This is a truly amazing survival. In uncut state, the work is a lot larger than regular copies – more than a cm taller and also significantly wider. 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…). Only one single presentation-copy of Philosophical Fragments is known to exist. Himmelstrup: 62. The present copy is no. 23 in Girsel's ""Kierkegaard"" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.
Kjøbenhavn, Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, 1920-1936. 8vo. Alle bind ubeskåret og i original blå kartonnage med de originale bogtrykte rygetiketter. Enkelte bind med lidt slitage ved kapitæler, false og titeletiketter samt lettere brunplettede rygge, men overvejende i særdeles god stand. Tidligere ejers navnetræk på forsatsbladene. Et enkelt bind med indstregninger og noter i marginen ellers helt ren og frisk.
The second edition of Kierkegaard's collected works, uncut in the original blue boards with the original title labels.
Samt. hshirtbd. Øvre kapitæl beskadiget. Nydeligt ekspl. m. kun få brune pletter.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 272.
Nyere grå-blåt blankt omsl. Aldeles rent ekspl.
Originaludgave, uden halvtitelbl. Himmelstrup 272.
Ubeskåret i nydeligt senere sort hldrbd. m. rygforgyldn. (Axel Jensen). Kun få brune pletter.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 272.
Kjøbenhavn, Reitzels Bo og Arvinger, 1857. Velbevaret i et senere nydeligt sort papbd. med forgyldt skindtitel på ryg. XVI,296 pp. Rent frisk eksemplar.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 272.
Nydeligt lidt senere hldrbd. m. rygforgyldn. Øvre fals en smule stødt. Særdeles rent og nydeligt ekspl.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 272.
K., 1857. Lidt senere simpelt hshirtbd. Her og der noget brunplettet. XVI, 296 pp.
Originaludgave. Himmelstrup 272
K., 1857 + 1859. Indb. sammen med Øieblikket 1-9, 1-4 i 3. oplag, 5-9 i 2. oplag og Dette skal siges" saa være det da sagt. Andet Oplag i ét samt. hldrbd. m. brugsspor. XVI, 29614203116233226473022 12 pp.
2 originaludgaver. Himmelstrup 272 + 287.
Ét samt. brunt hldrbd. m. rygforgyldn., blindtrykte dekorationer og rygtitelfelter af blåt skind" false og hjørner m. brugsspor. Indvendig helt ren.
2 originaludgaver, uden halvtitelbl. Himmelstrup 272 + 100.