Gå till innehållet

GOYA, FRANCISCO.

Los desastres de la guerra. Colección de ochenta láminas inventadas y grabadas al agua-fuerte. Publicala la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. - ["THE MOST SEARING WORKS OF ART EVER TO DEAL WITH CONFLICT"]

Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn60282
Madrid, 1906. Folio oblong. Bound in a splendid recent full longgrained burgundy morocco binding in pastiche style, with four raised bands to beautifully gilt spine. Boards with gilt ornamental borders and gilt centre-piece. Gilt line to edges of boards and inner gilt dentelles. Marbled end-papers. All leaves re-hinged. Occasional light brownspotting, but overall very nice. Title-page (the version with the second line (beginning "Colección de Ochenta...) in lower case), 2 pp. of text (dated 1863) + 80 engraved plates (on fine, laid paper measuring 23,4x32 cm.). Plates 17 and 77 have been misbound (the numbers 1 and 7 look almost the same - Harris II:201: "In some sets this plate has been bound out of order where the number hs been read as 77"; II:288: "In some sets this plate has been bound out of order where the number has been read as 17).

A beautiful copy of the splendid fourth edition of Goya's magnificent "Disasters of War" - one of the most significant anti-war works of art ever produced - consisting in all 80 plates that were issued. "The Disasters of War" constitutes Goya’s political masterpiece, directly inspired by and documenting the horrors he witnessed during the Peninsular War of 1808-14 between Spain and France under Napoleon Bonaparte, the terrible famine in Madrid in 1811-12, and the disappointment at the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. As such, it is one of the earliest and most important examples of war documentation and remains to this day one of the boldest anti-war statements ever made. This, however, is also the reason why these groundbreaking etchings were not published during Goya’s life-time. It was both too dangerous and too gruesome. As Alastair Sooke puts it, "[e]ven today it is difficult to look at the Disasters, because Goya catalogues the brutality and fatal consequences of war in such a stark, confrontational and unflinching manner." (See his article for BBC Culture, 2014). In this seminal series of etchings, Goya not only uses art to comment on politics and the atrocities connected with war, he also pioneers a number of artistic tools. Breaking from painterly traditions, he deviates from the heroics of most previous war art to show us how war can bring out the worst in humanity. He abandons colour in order to show us a more direct truth conveyed by the use of shadow and shade. Also, the fact that he presents the 80 works of art as a collection, together with the harsh, realistic nature of the etchings themselves, connect the images more closely to the art of photography that we are now so familiar with, causing the work as a whole to be viewed as one of the earliest examples of actual first-hand war reportage. The work has been extremely influential, perhaps most famously inspiring Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway (For Whom the Bells Toll). "There are many contenders for the most powerful example of war art from the past two centuries: Picasso’s Guernica (1937), painted in response to the bombing of a Basque village during the Spanish Civil War, would be an obvious choice. For me, though, nothing quite matches the originality and truth-telling ferocity of the Disasters of War, a series of 80 aquatint etchings, complete with caustic captions, by the Spanish artist Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)." (Sooke). The execution of the engravings has been dated to a period between 1810 and 1820, but no contemporary edition was made of this spectacular series. "Possibly by the time they were finished, the war and famine scenes were not of great appeal, and Goya was probably unwilling to risk another financial failure such as he had experienced with the "Caprichos". It was a time of stern repression and the publication of the satirican and violently anti-clerical subjects of some of the "caprichos enfánticos" would certainly have been dangerous. These facts would account for a postponement of publication. Also, Goya himself tells us that he fell seriously ill in the winter of 1819... and on his recovery he was planning to leave Spain and settle permanently in France. That Goya did not attempt to make an edition of "Desastres" in Madrid before leaving for France is borne out by the investigations of Catharina Boelcke-Astor, who showed that the copperplates were stored away in safes by Goya's son Javier, where they remained until the latter's death in 1854. Eventually, in November 1862, they were acquired by the Academia de San Fernando from D. Jaimé Machén for 28,000 reales..." (Harris I:141). In 1863, the first edition of Goya's seminal work was issued, under the famous title "Los desastres de la guerra". In all, 500 copies were issued. A second edition followed in 1892, and a third in 1903. Both of these editions were issued in merely 100 copies. In 1906, the fourth edition appeared, in a number of 275 copies. "This edition is excellently printed on very suitable papers" (Harris II: 175) and is considered much superior to the third. A further three editions appeared, in 1923, 1930, and 1937 respectively. "When Goya had engraved all the plates of the "Desastres" he gave his friend, Céan Bermúdez, an album containing a proof set of eighty-five plates, including the eighty plates eventually published as "Los Desastres de la Guerra", two plates numbered 81 and 82, which were prepared for the series but not published with it, and the three little engravings of "prisoners", which were never intended by Goya for inclusion in a published edition of the series." (Harris I:140). The first plate prepares the spectator for the contents of the series and can be seen as a sort of frontispiece, plates 2-47 deal mainly with the horrors of the war, plates 48-64 record the terrible famine in Madrid, and the final plates 65-80 constitute the "Caprichos enfánticos". " "The impact of the scenes is incredible," says the independent art historian Juliet Wilson-Bareau, one of the world’s leading Goya experts. "Each one is a powerful, original work of art in its own right, yet linked to the others with a common theme, including the way their titles - terse comments, questions, or cries of outrage - connect them, and read on from one to another. The grouping of the series into three ‘chapters’ gives the whole a sense of rhythm and purpose." Goya must have hoped that he would live to see the publication of his Disasters, but the despotic rule of Ferdinand VII made this impossible. "Under his repressive and reactionary regime," Wilson-Bareau explains, "there was no way that Goya could have published his set of prints that so clearly denounced all violence and all abuse of power." Still, following their posthumous publication, the Disasters proved enormously influential, inspiring artists including the German Otto Dix as well as Dalí and Picasso - and, more recently, the British brothers Jake and Dinos Chapman, who bought a complete edition of the prints and ‘defaced’ them by adding grotesque, cartoonish faces. Even the war photographer Don McCullin acknowledges a debt: "When I took pictures in war, I couldn’t help thinking of Goya," he has said. The genius of the Disasters is that they transcend particularities of the Peninsular War and its aftermath to feel universal - and modern. Perhaps this is because, as the British writer Aldous Huxley put it in 1947, "All [Goya] shows us is war’s disasters and squalors, without any of the glory or even picturesqueness." So should we consider the series as the greatest war art ever created? Wilson-Bareau certainly thinks so. "For me, yes," she tells me. "I have lived with these prints, which many people consider too shocking, absolutely unbearable, and I find in them - besides the heartbreak and outrage at the unspeakable violence and damage - a great well of compassion for all victims of the suffering and abuses they depict, which goes to the very heart of our humanity." (From Alastair Sooke's BBC-article). Harris II: 175.
Adress:
Silkegade 11
DK-1113 Copenhagen
Denmark
Telefon:
CVR/VAT:
DK 16 89 50 16

Nyligen tillagda från Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S

What's Welsh for Zen? The Autobiography of John…
Se fler bilder
CALE, JOHN (+) BOCKRIS, VICTOR.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62763
London, Bloomsbury, 1999 (1997/1998 ?). Folio. Unbound, as issued, unopened in original plastic protection, in the original cardboard box with photographic paper-label to lid and to back. Number 518 out of 1000 copies, signed by Cale. The lid of the cardboard box with very light edge wear, otherwise mint condition. Richly illustrated throughout with photographs, reproductions of manuscripts, artworks, and memorabilia from Cale’s archives. Also included is a copy of the nornmal, unnumbered edition, dated 1999, in the original cardboard-binding with photographic paper-label to front and back board and printed spine. This copy is opened and with the same illustrated contents as the limited signed edition, which is unopened in its original plastic protection. Corners slightly bumped, otherwise a very nice and clean copy. 272 pp. Signed, numbered edition - rarely found in the trade - of John Cale's autobiography, an artwork in itself. Cale was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground: "arguably the most influential American rock band of our time" (The New York Times, October 3, 2013). The book mixes text, poetry, and collage-like visual material in an experimental narrative reflecting Cale’s avantgarde style. It covers Cale’s early years in Wales, his work with La Monte Young and the Theatre of Eternal Music, his period with The Velvet Underground and his subsequent solo and production career with Nico, Patti Smith, Brian Eno, The Stooges, and others.
Visa mer
Forord. Morskabslæsning for enkelte Stænder efter…
Se fler bilder
KIERKEGAARD, SØREN.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62263
Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1844. Small 8vo. 110, (1) pp. Completely uncut in the original blue cardboard-binding. Minimal wear to capitals, and hinges with a tiny tear to front upper and back hinge. Minute paper loss to capitals, and minimal loss to one corner. The printed title-label preserved in its entirety. Brownspotting due to the quality of the paper.A truly magnificent copy in completely original state – almost looks like it came straight off the press. First edition of Kierkegaard's most humorous book, Prefaces, in the very rare original blue binding in truly magnificent state and with the printed title-label preserved in its entirety. Published simultaneously with The Concept of Anxiety, Prefaces can be viewed as its companion piece. It represents an altogether different genre and is the most humorous of all of Kierkegaard’s works, but the two fictional authors of the works interestingly contrast each other. Although having been eclipsed by the now notoriously famous Concept of Anxiety, Prefaces was in fact more popular when it appeared and sold many more copies. Written under the pseudonym of Nicolaus Notabene, the “author” name indicates that despite its humorous approach, Prefaces is still something serious – something to be noted. And it certainly is. It is here that we find Kierkegaard’s sarcastic roasting of the Hegelian system and of the Danish Hegelians with Johan Ludvig Heiberg as the main representant. Through Notabene, he makes fun of Heiberg and Hegel, who both want to explain everything and want to be mediators of understanding. Just as Hafniensis in The Concept on Anxiety poses that “how sin came into the world each man understands solely by himself. If he would learn it from another, he would misunderstand it” (p. 51), so Notabene in Prefaces states that “My frame, my health, my entire constitution do not lend themselves to mediation” (p. 45). In Prefaces we also find Kierkegaard’s thoughts about the relationship between the reading public and the author and his fierce criticism of literary critics and reviewers, among these also Heiberg as well as Martensen, who famously reviewed Either-Or and Repetition respectively. And in the very amusing preface to the Prefaces, we are given another glimpse into Kierkegaard’s thoughts on marriage and the dilemma he found himself in with Regine – the inner struggle between he, who is the husband, and he, who is the author; can one be both? With its challenging notions on the idea of the book and the interaction of the book with its readers, his little ironic masterpiece is a clear forerunner of Postmodernism. “Kierkegaard’s ‘Prefaces’ is a brief though not unimportant work. Themes he develops elsewhere at greater length here are presented with characteristic insight and wit. This richly suggestive text has never received the attention it deserves. William McDonald’s fine translation now makes it possible to assess the importance of ‘Prefaces’ for Kierkegaard’s œuvre and to appreciate its significance for philosophical, literary, and theological issues that are still with us.” (From the review of William McDonald’s 1989 edition of Prefaces in English in the Kierkegaard and Postmodernism-series). Written under a pseudonym and without Kierkegaard’s name appearing as publisher or indeed as anything else, he was unable to give away presentation-copies of the work (due to his own strict set of rules for this). Thus, not a single presentation copy of the work exists. A single copy of the book was in the auction catalogue of his book collection after his death. Himmelstrup 70. The present copy is no. 28 in Girsel's "Kierkegaard" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.
Visa mer
Das Moderne Plakat. - [THE MAIN WORK OF BELLE…
Se fler bilder
SPONSEL, JEAN LOUIS
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62774
Dresden, Verlag von Gerhard Kühtmann. 1897. Large4to. In contemporary half cloth with leather title-label to spine. Light discolouration to upper margins of boards. Inner front hinge quite weak. Internally very nice and clean. VII, 316 pp. + 52 colour lithograph plates and 266 monotone illustrations (included in the pagination). First edition of one of the most important and influential art-historical publications of the Belle Époque. This magnificent work established the artistic poster as a recognised and serious art form. The work provides a comprehensive geographical survey of the principal poster artists of the day and includes 52 colour lithograph plates and 266 monochrome illustrations by Chéret, Toulouse-Lautrec, Steinlen, Grasset, Mucha, Will Bradley, Louis Rhead, and others. Jean Louis Sponsel (1858–1930) was a German art historian and museum director in Dresden, known for his studies on the decorative and graphic arts. Director of the Grünes Gewölbe and scholar of the Kupferstich-Kabinett, he was among the first to recognise the artistic importance of the modern poster. The present work remains a landmark publication, elevating poster design to the status of fine art.
Visa mer
Huetiana, ou pensees diverses de M. Huet, eveque…
Se fler bilder
HUET, PIERRE DANIEL.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62786
Amsterdam, Herman Uytwerf, 1723. 8vo. Bound in a bit later half calf binding with six raised bands with gilt lettering and ornamentation to spine. All edges coloured in red. Previous owner's name to title-page and internally with light occassional browning. XX, (8), 449,+ (3) pp. Fullpage wood-cut on p. 57. Second edition.
Stadier paa Livets Vei. Studier af Forskjellige.…
Se fler bilder
KIERKEGAARD, SØREN.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62266
Kjøbenhavn, Reitzel, 1845. Large 8vo. (8), 383 pp. An extraordinary copy printed on very heavy vellum-paper and bound in the mid-20th century in an elegant black half Morocco binding with single gilt lines to boards; double gilt lines and Gothic gilt lettering to spine (bound by Agnete With). Top edge gilt. A bit of brownspotting throughout. With the bookplate of Henning Kehler to inside of front board and with neat pencil annotations to back free end-paper describing the history of the copy. With a handwritten correction on p. 47. Kierkegaard's own copy of the pivotal sequel to his main work Either-Or, one of two copies printed on special paper, with Kierkegaard's own handwritten correction on p. 47. In Either-Or, Kierkegaard had presented the first two stages, the aesthetic and the ethical. In Stages on Life's Way, he continues his work on these stages and moves on to present also the religious stage, which occupies approximately two thirds of the work. The religious stage is that in which man attains a personal relationship with God and that in which man only truly begins to exist, the aesthetic and ethical stages being inadequate. It is in this foundational work, in the religious stage, that Kierkegaard first properly describes what is now known as the "Leap of Faith" (in fact a "leap to faith"), namely the leap that involves willing and belief instead of reason and knowledge, the leap that you take in order to connect to God and which requires that which Kierkegaard calls "the suspension of the ethical". Undoubtedly among Kierkegaard's most brilliant literary achievements, Stages on Life's Way is written in the form of different viewpoints of Kierkegaard's many pseudonymous characters. We have both Hilarius Bookbinder, who by chance has come into possession of the documents presented in the work and has prepared them for printing. We have the famous banquet scene, which mirrors Plato's Symposium, described by William Afham, and in which the three aesthetics participate: Johannes the Seducer, Victor Eremita, and Constatin Constantius. We have Judge William's discourse in praise of marriage, and we have the diary, discovered by Frater Taciturnus, of a young man, who was deeply in love but felt compelled to break off his engagement. This story in form of a diary is the closest one comes to a description of Kierkegaard's own love story, his relationship to Regine. The diary describes an engagement that has lasted for six months; it alternates between the morning notes that recall the engagement and the midnight notes that put it all in perspective. The work closes with a letter to the reader from Taciturnus on the three "existence-spheres" represented by the three parts of the book. Stages on Life's Way is one of Kierkegaard's most important works. Not only does it sum up and explain some of the most important themes of Kierkegaard's previous works, utilizing the characters and pseudonymous authors of the earlier works to do so; it goes beyond these foundational themes, introduces the religious stage, and points to the further development of the central themes in Kierkegaard's philosophy, most of which are only fully developed in Concluding Unscientific Postscript. Written under a pseudonym and without Kierkegaard's name appearing as publisher or indeed anything else, he was unable to give away presentation-copies of the work (due to his own rigid set of rules for his presentation-copies). Thus, not a single presentation copy of the work exists. A single copy of the book was in the auction catalogue of his book collection after his death. In Rohde's edition of the auction-record, this copy and its recent faith is thoroughly described. Like Repetition, Prefaces, and his other seven pseudonymous works, Stages on Life's Way was printed in two copies each on vellum-paper and bound in special bindings, one for Regine, one for Kierkegaard himself. 24 years ago, three of these books surfaced, at an auction in 2002, namely Either-Or, Repetition, and Prefaces, all being the copies Kierkegaard had bound for Regine. Before that, only one single copy of one of these eight titles for Kierkegaard himself or for Regine were known (namely Kierkegaard's own copy of Either-Or, which is in the Danish Royal Library). Seven of the books, Kierkegaard's own copies, were listed in the auction catalogue after his death, but apart from the mentioned copy of Either-Or in the Royal Library, the others had not been found. Kierkegaard's wildly famous love story and failed engagement to Regine Olsen plays a pivotal role throughout Kierkegaard's entire life and work. It all begins in 1837, when Kierkegaard meets the lovely young girl Regine Olsen at a visit to the widowed Cathrine Rørdam. Three years later, in September 1840, after having corresponded frequently with her and visited her on numerous occasions, Kierkegaard decides to ask for her hand in marriage. She and her family accept, but the following day, Kierkegaard regrets his decision and ends up finally breaking off the engagement in October 1841. Disregarding the scandal, the heartbreak (his own included), and the numerous pleas from family members and friends alike, Kierkegaard's tortured soul, still searching for God and for the meaning of faith, cannot continue living with the promise of marriage. Later the same month, he flees Copenhagen and the scandal surrounding the broken engagement. He leaves for Berlin, the first of his four stays there, clearly tortured by his decision, but also intent on not being able to go through with the engagement. As is evident from his posthumously published Papers, Kierkegaard's only way out of the relationship was to play a charming, but cold, villain, a charlatan, not betraying his inner thoughts and feelings. Despite the brevity of the engagement, it has gone down in history as one of the most significant in the entire history of modern thought. It is a real-life Werther-story with the father of Existentialism as the main character, thus with the dumbfounding existentialist outcome that no-one could have foreseen. This exceedingly famous and difficult engagement became the introduction to one of the most influential authorships in the last two centuries. "She was the reason for my authorship", Kierkegaard writes in his Papers, and there is no doubt that several of his most significant works are born out of the relationship with Regine – and its ending. It is during his stay in Berlin, his first of four altogether, right after the rupture of the engagement, that he begins writing Either-Or, parts of which can be read as an almost autobiographical rendering of his failed engagement. After a couple of years, Regine got engaged to someone else, whom she married in 1847. But as is well known, Kierkegaard never married, and the impact of his engagement to Regine and what it made him understand – about himself, about religion, faith, the inner workings of the philosopher and the poet –, never lost its significance. It is evident from the many drafts of a letter that he sent to Regine, through her husband, in 1849 (which was returned to him, unopened) that he had never lain the matter to rest and that the relationship with Regine was still very much alive. He also states in his Notebook 15 from 1849 "By the way, it is certainly the case that my relationship with her has been a very close, present study for me of what faith is. For I know better in this relationship how it is apparently the exact opposite of the foundational. That I have lasted in this relationship has been useful for me in relating to God as a believer." In his Notebook 15, also known as My Relationship with Her, from 1849, Kierkegaard describes how, when he finally broke off the engagement and she tried to get him to stay, she had told him "that she would thank me her entire life for being allowed to stay with me, even if she were to live in a little cupboard" (SKS No. 16: 6). Thus, Kierkegaard had a little cupboard made, with no shelves in it. Here, he kept "everything that reminds me of her and will remind me of her. There is also a copy of the pseudonyms (i.e. the works that he wrote under a pseudonym); of these, there were always only two copies on vellum-paper, one for her and one for me." (SKS: Not. 15:6.). In all, Kierkegaard wrote eight pseudonymous books, Stages on Life's Way being one of them, all of which were evidently printed in two copies each on vellum-paper and bound in special bindings, one for Regine, one for Kierkegaard himself. This splendid copy, which is one of two specially produced copies, being Kierkegaard's own copy, with his own correction (deleting "ikke" – i.e. "not" on p. 47), is nr. 2136 in the auction catalogue of Kierkegaard's books sold after his death. In Rohde's official edition of the auction catalogue, there is a lengthy note on the present copy documenting the more recent history of the copy:"Now: Mogens Müllertz, Copenhagen. Copy on vellum-paper. S.K.,'s own handwritten correction of the printing error "not" on p. 47, cf Papers XI I, p. 36. The previous owner, the author Henning Kehler, has let the book, which was originally in half calf, rebind in black half calf by Agnete With and has pasted his book plate on the inside of the front board. In 1952, Henning Kehler gave the book as a Christmas present to Mogens Müllertz; in an accompanying letter Kehler writes, among other things: "even though the present book is my best and dearest, I still want you to have it. I know of no-one else to whom I would rather dispense with it." In an article "About printing errors", Berlingske Aftenavis 9.11.1963, Kehler touches upon this book gift: "Being a writer I am naturally hardened when it comes to printing errors, no book and no newspaper article is without errors. Søren Kierkegaard, who could even pay others – eg. Israel Levin – to proofread mentions in his Papers a printing error in "Stages on Life's Way", which kept vexing him. It was a "not" that had fallen out. I once owned a copy of the book that had been placed in the palisander book cabinet for Regine, and in that copy, this "not" had been added in ink and in Kierkegaard's handwriting. I gave the book to a book-mad collector – under false pretenses, alas." – Identification of the copy uncertain." (pp. 110-11).Although Kehler is mistaken in the correction being adding a "not" instead of deleting one, there is no doubt that this is the copy he is referring to. The sentence on p. 47, in which the correction occurs reads "Pro dii immortals what is a woman, when she is not in fashion, per deo obsecro what is she when she is not (this being the "not" that Kierkegaard has deleted here and was vexed about) in fashion".This copy on very heavy paper – one of the two printed like this – is approximately 1/3 thicker than normal copies of the book.The pencil annotations on the back free end-paper bear witness to the previous owner's frustration at Kehler for having tampered with the copy. After stating that this is Kierkegaard's personal copy, one of two on vellum-paper and copy nr. 2136 from the auction catalogue, he continues: "The copy used to have all edges gilt, a few leaves still have remains of this. The edge has been shaved at the ruthless rebinding that Henning Kehler in his complete lack of understanding of what he possessed had done." On Kehler's bookplate, the same previous owner has noted in neat pencil-annotation "bibliophile vandal".In spite of the frustration with this particular book having been rebound and not kept exactly as it was, this is still an utterly amazing copy of one of Kierkegaard's most important works – hands down the best copy there is of the work. Namely Kierkegaard's own, with his own correction, one of two printed on heavy paper, one for Regine, one for himself. We must be thankful that, despite the "vandalism" of the rebinding, the book is still here and identified as that same copy that Kierkegaard had made for himself. Himmelstrup 78.
Visa mer
A. En Flygtig Bemærkning betræffende en Enkelthed…
Se fler bilder
KIERKEGAARD, SØREN.
Herman H. J. Lynge & Søn A/S
lyn62268
(København), 1845. Large 4to (33 x 24, 8 cm). 2 columns to a page. Columns 15145 – 15160. 4 ff. + 1 f. (Følgeblad til Nr. 1890). Kierkegaard’s article is printed as a feuilleton at the bottom of the pages, beneath a printed double-line (this section is reserved for the serials), and runs from columns 15147-15153 + 15155-15159. Marginal dampstaining. The exceedingly scarce original printing of the two issues of The Fatherland that contain Kierkegaard’s highly important article on the performance of Don Giovanni at The Royal Theatre of Copenhagen in 1845. The present paper entitled A Cursory Observation Concerning a Detail in Don Giovanni, signed “A”, is of great importance in connection with Either-Or, to which Kierkegaard indirectly refers twice. The paper is in two parts and was printed over two numbers of The Fatherland, Monday 19th of May and Tuesday 20th of May, 1845. The occasion that prompted the paper was the re-staging of Don Juan at the Royal Theatre on February 23rd, 1845. Last time, Don Juan had been performed at The Royal Theatre was the season of 1839-40, where Kierkegaard was certainly also present. The first part of Either-Or contains “A’s Papers” (note that the present paper is signed by “A” as the author); it is in this part of the work that we find the chapter about the erotic stages, The Immediate Erotic Stages, Or The Musical-Erotic, which is devoted to the music of Mozart, in particular Don Juan. For Kierkegaard, Don Juan represents sensuality. And there is no other place where the untamed power of nature is better expressed than in Mozart’s Don Juan. Mozart’s Don Juan influenced Kierkegaard more than any other work of art, and throughout his life he returns to just how magnificent it is – “A work of genious that carries the touch of eternity”. Together with The Immediate Erotic Stages, Or The Musical-Erotic in Either-Or, the present article is Kierkegaard’s most important printed piece on Don Juan. When Nielsen collected and published Kierkegaard’s newspaper articles posthumously, in 1857, he apparently did not realize that Kierkegaard was also the author of the present pseudonymous paper and did not include it in his publication. It appeared as a separately published appendix two years later, in 1859, with remarks about the references to Either-Or. Fædrelandet – litterally translated as ”The Fatherland” – was a Danish newspaper that was founded in 1834 and existed until 1882. In the beginning it appeared weekly, but in 1839, it began appearing daily. With its cultural and political contents, it soon became the leading paper of the national liberal opposition. The paper was the most important paper in Kierkegaard’s time and the one that more than any other influenced public opinion. During the first years of its existence, the paper had numerous different publishers and editors. It also ended up in numerous controversies with the censorship authorities, resulting in many trials and fines. From May 1841, the editors of the paper were Carl Ploug and J.F. Giødwad. The latter would come to play an enormous role in Kierkegaard’s authorship, as would The Fatherland itself. Giødwad was one of the very few people that Kierkegaard has ever characterized as a “personal friend” (SKS 21 214,10). It is very likely that this friendship was initiated in 1842, when Kierkegaard published his first paper in The Fatherland, Aabenbart Skriftemaal. We know that from the Christmas of 1842, Giødwad helps with the proof reading of Either-Or and is thus clearly one of the most trusted people in his life. As we shall see later, it was also Giødwad, who represented Kierkegaard in dealings with publishers and printers, when it had to do with the pseudonymous writings, thus protecting Kierkegaard’s pseudonymity and shielding him from the public. Giødwad himself said that Kierkegaard initially got a favourable impression of him when at some point he had dismissed a reader, who wished to know who was behind an anonymous paper published in The Fatherland (see A.D. Jørgensen’s statement from 1885 in Kirmmsee, Søren Kierkegaard truffet, p. 88). Kierkegaard trusted Giødwad completely, and thereby also The Fatherland. Apart from his four earliest papers in Kjøbenhavnsposten (see nr. 1 above), The Fatherland was the only paper Kierkegaard would publish in. During its entire existence, The Fatherland would be published in ca 2.000 copies, making it of the utmost scarcity today. Almost all copies of it have been destroyed, thrown out, worn, etc., and it is extremely rare on the market. The few issues we have at the moment are the only ones from this period that we have ever seen for sale. Himmelstrup 84. The present copy is no. 33 in Girsel's "Kierkegaard" (The Catalogue) which can be found here.
Visa mer