Money in Books
Surviving beyond his thirty-fourth birthday meant there would be a new
deadline (if we may call it that) in Kierkegaard’s life, and this also led to
some sudden rearrangements of the accounts in Kierkegaard’s other home,
his writings. In the latter part of April 1847, Councillor of State Christian
Molbech tried to purchase a copy ofEither/Oras a present for a German
friend. To his great surprise, the work was sold out, and this, as he told its
author, must be a “phenomenon in our recent literary history that may need
to be examined.” Kierkegaard’s initial reaction was an angry toss of his head
at Molbech’s ignorance: The first edition ofEither/Orhad been sold out as
early as December 1844, and when shortly thereafter Reitzel had suggested
to the author that there be another printing, he had opposed the ideaon
principle. Molbech therefore ought not start studying some phenomenon
in literary history, but he should instead learn the demanding dialectic of
reversedness, with which he would surely have difficulties: “People have
the same experience with this sort of dialectic as dogs have with learning
to walk on their hind legs: For a moment they succeed, but then they go
right back to walking on all fours.” Molbech was in reality one of those on
all fours, for he could not conceive that Kierkegaard would work against
himself and in service to an idea by notpermittinga reprinting ofEither/Or.
And in fact Kierkegaard sent Molbech one of his own copies ofEither/Or,
which though not brand new was better than nothing—and if he wanted
an “entirely new copy,” all he had to do was ask, and Kierkegaard would
“ ‘take the hint’ with the speed of an obedient genie.” Thus Kierkegaard
wished to work counter to himself in the service of an idea, but not counter
to Councillor of State Molbech.
At the beginning of August 1847—that is,afterthe notorious thirty-
fourth birthday—despite of all his declarations of principle, Kierkegaard
negotiated with Reitzel concerning the remaining unsold copies of the
other books Reitzel had on a commission basis, and he concluded one of
his letters with the following half-promise: “As forEither/Or, it can certainly
be left for another occasion.” Clearly, Kierkegaard was no longerentirely
opposed to the idea of a new printing. Reitzel must have hesitated a bit,
however, because by the end of that same month Kierkegaard was already
well along in similar negotiations with the book dealer P. G. Philipsen,
who on August 23, in accordance with a conversation he had had with
Kierkegaard, sent him his calculations along with a price quote from the
printer Bianco Luno. Philipsen proposed that a new printing ofEither/Or
have a press run of one thousand copies, nearly twice the size of the first