Soren Kierkegaard

printing, which would enable him to reduce the retail price by at least a
rixdollar. Luno wanted 948 rixdollars and 60 shillings for printing and paper,
to which would be added expenses for binding and advertising, and the net
result was that Kierkegaard would receive 500 rixdollars, of which 400
would be paid on January 1, 1849, and the remaining 100 when the entire
printing was sold out.
Kierkegaard could not accept this offer. He wanted 700 rixdollars, to
which Philipsen replied on August 28, a bit confused—in the company of
the well-spoken writer he had apparently forgotten all his calculations and
other such tedious details—yet with businesslike firmness: “Esteemed Mr.
Magister! You have good reason to smile at my vacillation. When I am
with you, I forget all my figures. I see and hear nothing but the author of
Either/Orand say yes to everything that flows from your lips. Here in my
office I am finally able to make my estimate. I have once again calculated
my expenses and all the risks very carefully, and as a result I am compelled
to stand by my letter of the 23rd of this month and can only assume the
publication ofEither/Orin accordance with the conditions stated in it.”
Kierkegaard was quite understandably less than delighted by Philipsen’s
offer of 500 rixdollars for one thousand copies, for a few years earlier, when
he had served as his own publisher, he had earned approximately 1,000
rixdollars on the first printing, which was only 525 copies. And his negative
response to Philipsen’s offer came only two days later: “Esteemed sir! Since
you do not want what I want, then you will not publishEither/Or, and
with this the matter is settled.”
Kierkegaard now turned to Reitzel, and in an undated letter he commu-
nicated his acceptance of Reitzel’s offer of 550 rixdollars for 750 copies.
This was the equivalent of 733 rixdollars for one thousand copies and was
thus clearly a better offer than Philipsen’s. Furthermore, Reitzel was pre-
pared for prompter payment of the money, of “which 300 rixdollars would
be paid on June 11, 1849 and the remaining 250 rixdollars at the end of July
1849.” Time was money, and Kierkegaard was short of both. “Therefore I
accept without further ado your offer forEither/Or, even though the royal-
ties are pretty small—but then it is also a small country,” Kierkegaard wrote
with grudging enthusiasm. He continued: “And good luck with the trans-
action. In my view you have made yourself a very advantageous deal, and
you will see that the venture will prosper. If I had not in so many ways
worked directly against its sale in the days when I myself was the publisher,
the situation would also have been quite different then.” The good luck
that was supposed to accompany the venture (now that Kierkegaard was not
working against sales) was, however, not sufficient for the second edition to