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Encounters with Kierkegaard

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Bruce H. Kirmmse, editor
Encounters with Kierkegaard:
A Life as Seen by His Contemporaries

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1996) 358 pages
(ISBN: 0-691-01106-0; hardcover)
(Library of Congress call number: B4376.E43 1996)

Hundreds of people were acquainted with Søren Kierkegaard
during his short life, 1813-1855.
Every day he walked the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark,
where he lived his whole life.
This book is a remarkable collection of recollections
gathered from people who knew SK
---friends, relatives, colleagues, even critics.
These accounts were previously published in Danish,
in many different places and forms.
And now---a century and a half after the persons and events described---
these memories are published in English.
About 70 pages of notes explain who the writers were
and many of the obscure references in these letters, books,
recollections as told to others, etc.

These accounts provide deep insights into how
Kierkegaard's contemporaries understood him and reacted to him.
They knew SK as a person observed.
But one overwhelming impression for this reviewer
is that none of his contemporaries understood SK.
They sometimes appreciated his writings for their esthetic value.
But none shows any grasp of the central meanings
of the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard.

These personal accounts are all very interesting background material.
But to understand Kierkegaard, we must read his own words.

James Leonard Park, existential philosopher.