Episcopal priest. The letter was dated October 14, 1833, and was addressed
to “Mrs. Anna Kierkegaard,” who was thus the recipient—presumably for
the first and only time in her life—of a letter addressed solely to herself.
Williston recounts how he had sat by Niels Andreas day and night during
his final days and had heard hi mspeak so beautifully of his mother, his
sisters, andhis brothers.And theletter concludes: “Happythe Sonwho has
such a Mother—and happy the Mother who has such a Son.”
It was moving, but it was also terrifying, because in all his solicitude for
the grieving mother Williston seemed to have entirely forgotten that Niels
Andreas had also had a father! Was it forgetfulness, just a misunderstanding,
or wasthis perhapsa consciousomission—a sortof revenge?The merchant
Kierkegaard was so tormented by these thoughts that he asked Peter Chris-
tian to write to Williston and request a complete explanation. And Peter
Christian did just that. The letter—which Peter Christian quite uncharac-
teristically transcribed in his diary—was mailed off on December 22, 1833,
in two copies, each sent by a different vessel because the matter was so
important to the old man that he could not risk the possibility that his
inquiry might not reach its destination. Peter Christian asked Williston to
explain—“if You can”—why Niels Andreas had made no mention what-
ever of his father, “to who mthis circu mstance has given a great deal of
trouble and caused many an inquiet night.” Typically for Peter Christian,
he added the suggestion that perhaps he himself might have been indirectly
responsible for his brother’s silence on this matter because one of his final
letters to Niels Andreas had spoken of their father in such a fashion that his
brothermighthave concluded that their father was mortally ill or even that
he had been dead and buried for some time.
Peter Christian had earned a magister degree on the subject of lying, and
he knew how to tell a white lie in an emergency. As far as is known, Wil-
liston never answered, but later in the year the Rogers family, Niels An-
dreas’s hosts in Paterson, provided assurances that Niels Andreas had never
at any time said that his father was dead. A fear such as that which Peter
Christian had expressed about a possible misunderstanding was entirely
groundless—and so, one might add, was the hope that Peter Christian had
tried to sustain in his troubled father. Reluctantly, the senior Kierkegaard
was compelled to realize that his son’s silence was not attributable to any
misunderstanding, but rather to the frightful fact that he had been written
offas afather. “Hegave You,mydear Madam,great creditfor hisreligious
education,”Willistonhadwritteninhisletterto“Mrs.AnnaKierkegaard.”
As merciless as it was unambiguous.
During the winter of 1833–34 the Kierkegaard family home must have
been a hell of grief and self-reproach. With an especially heavy-handed44 {1813–1834}