Soren Kierkegaard

more literary braggadocio than documentable fact. It also requires a bit of
metaphorical generosity to agree to the claim, which he made on the same
occasion as the remark just mentioned, that the work had been written in
a monastery. Nor did Kierkegaard work alone in completing the book. The
fair copy of this enormous manuscript was produced by “my little secretary
Mr. Christensen,” as he called Peter Vilhelm Christensen, who after having
passed his theological examinations was unemployed, available, and poor as
a church mouse. During the winter of 1842–43, Christensen and Kierke-
gaard proofread the work, assisted at times by the editor ofFædrelandet,J.
F. Giødwad, in whose office many of the intellectuals of the day would
meet for a morning chat. According to Hother Ploug, “one might say that
the proofs ofEither/Orwere read atFædrelandet’s offices,” which was not
exactly the most suitable locale. Ploug wrote peevishly about Kierkegaard’s
presence in the office: “One must imagine what it is like to have to have a
newspaper ready at a definite time—and in those days it was early in the
afternoon, because the police inspector had to look at the issue before it
could be distributed—and to have an impractical and very self-absorbed
man sitting in the office, ceaselessly lecturing and talking, without the least
awareness of the inconvenience he is causing.”
But the whole business succeeded: In the middle of November, Victor
Eremita’s foreword wascompleted, and three months laterthe Bianco Luno
press had finished printing the 838 pages. Not quite a week later, on Mon-
day,February20,1843,thebook,ofwhich525copieshadbeenprinted,lay
on the counter at Reitzel’s Bookshop, at a price of four rixdollars seventy-
two shillings per copy.