Prefaces: Writing Sampler

Søren Kierkegaard, Todd W. Nichol

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN:
  9780691140735
  9780691048277
• eBook ISBN:
  9781400832378
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Ethics & Moral Philosophy

Prefaces was the last of four books by Søren Kierkegaard to appear within two weeks in June 1844. Three Upbuilding Discourses and Philosophical Fragments were published first, followed by The Concept of Anxiety and its companion--published on the same day--the comically ironic Prefaces. Presented as a set of prefaces without a book to follow, this work is a satire on literary life in nineteenth-century Copenhagen, a lampoon of Danish Hegelianism, and a prefiguring of Kierkegaard's final collision with Danish Christendom.


Shortly after publishing Prefaces, Kierkegaard began to prepare Writing Sampler as a sequel. Writing Sampler considers the same themes taken up in Prefaces but in yet a more ironical and satirical vein. Although Writing Sampler remained unpublished during his lifetime, it is presented here as Kierkegaard originally envisioned it, in the company of Prefaces.

EDITORIAL APPENDIX

Acknowledgments

Collation of Prefaces
in the Danish Editions of
Kierkegaard’s Collected Works

Notes

Bibliographical Note

Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Preparation of manuscripts for Kierkegaard’s Writings during the final phase is supported by a genuinely enabling grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and gifts from the Danish Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the General Mills Foundation, Gilmore and Charlotte Schjeldahl, and the Vellux Foundation.

The translator-editor is grateful to the Board of Directors of Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, who authorized use of part of a sabbatical leave to complete the translation.

The learning and skill of Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong are evident on every page of this volume. Per Lønning, Wim R. Scholtens, and Sophia Scopetéa, members of the International Advisory Board for Kierkegaard’s Writings, offered valuable criticism of the entire manuscript. Luther Seminary colleagues Roy A. Harrisville, Paul R. Sponheim, and Walter C. Sundberg commented on the “Historical Introduction,” and Craig R. Koester gave advice on Greek and Latin passages. Nathaniel Hong, associate editor for KW, scrutinized the entire manuscript and prepared the electronic manuscript and index. Gretchen Oberfranc was the compositor.

Acknowledgment is made to Gyldendals Forlag for permission to absorb notes in Søren Kierkegaards samlede Værker and Søren Kierkegaards Papirer.

Inclusion in the Supplement of entries from Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers is by arrangement with Indiana University Press.

The book collection and the microfilm collection of the Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, were used in preparation of the text, Supplement, and Editorial Appendix.

The volume was guided through the press by Marta Nussbaum Steele.

COLLATION OF PREFACES IN THE DANISH EDITIONS OF KIERKEGAARD’S COLLECTED WORKS

Vol. V	Vol. V	Vol. 5
Ed. 1	Ed. 2	Ed. 3
Pg.	Pg.	Pg.
5	9	197
6	10	197
7	11	198
8	12	199
9	13	200
10	14	201
11	15	202
12	16	203
13	17	204
14	18	205
15	19	206
16	21	207
17	21	207
18	23	209
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27	31	216
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31	35	219
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71	77	255

NOTES

PREFACES

TITLE PAGE

TITLE PAGE. “Light Reading.” In the final manuscript, the phrase was changed from “Curious Light Reading.” See Supplement, p. 108 (Pap. V B 96:1).

Estates. The published form of the subtitle contains a reference to the traditional European concept of “estate” or “order.” This may be, among other things, an echo of the subtitle of the Haustafel [Table of Duties] often appe...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
• Prefaces
• PREFACE
• Preface I
• Preface II
• Preface III
• Preface IV
• Preface V
• Preface VI
• Preface VII
• Preface VIII
• Writing Sampler
• SUPPLEMENT
• EDITORIAL APPENDIX