Preface to Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (Søren Kierkegaard's Writings), electronic version

 

Preface to version 1.8

In addition to version 1.7, version 1.8 comprises:

•	Letters and dedications
•	Loose papers 592-596

corresponding to SKS-B 28 with accompanying explanatory volume K28.

Further Biographical documents have been added as a resource file for SKS-E.

 

Preface to version 1.7

In addition to version 1.6, version 1.7 comprises Kierkegaard's unpublished writings:

•	Et Øieblik, Hr. Andersen! (Just a Moment, Mr. Andersen!)
•	Johannes Climacus eller De omnibus dubitandum est (Johannes Climacus or De Omnibus Dubitandum Est)
•	Polemik mod Heiberg (Polemics against Heiberg)
•	Bogen om Adler (The Book on Adler)
•	Synpunktet for min Forfatter-Virksomhed (The Point of View for My Work as an Author)
•	Den bevæbnede Neutralitet (Armed Neutrality)
•	Hr. Phister som Captain Scipio (Mr. Phister as Captain Scipio)
•	Dømmer selv! (Judge for Yourself!)

corresponding to SKS-B 15-16 with accompanying explanatory volume K15-K16.

The Moment, 10, is strictly speaking also an unpublished writing and has been established as such. For tematic reasons it was published along with The Moment, 1-9, already in version 1.5.

 

Preface to version 1.6

In addition to version 1.5, version 1.6 comprises Kierkegaard's loose papers subdivided in threee sections

•	Loose papers 1-304, 1830-43
•	Loose papers 305-446, 1843-52
•	Loose papers 447-591, 1852-55

corresponding to SKS-B 27 with accompanying explanatory volume K27.

Besides adjustments in connection with this extention and minor corrections, the search engine has bee updated with an improved version. Also the search and references is now oriented towards the page numbers of the printed version to a higher degree than earlier versions.

 

Preface to version 1.5

In addition to version 1.4, version 1.5 comprises Kierkegaard's published writings from 1851 and after together with the collected newspaper articles:

•	Om min Forfatter-Virksomhed (On My Work as an Author)
•	Til selvprøvelse Samtiden anbefalet (For Self-Examination)
•	Dette skal siges; saa være det da sagt (This Must Be Said; So Let It Be Said)
•	Hvad Christus dømmer om officiel Christendom (What Christ Judges of Official Christianity)
•	Øieblikket (The Moment) 1-10
•	Guds Uforanderlighed (The Changelessness of God)
•	Newspaper articles 1834-36
•	Newspaper articles 1842-51
•	Newspaper articles 1854-55

corresponding to SKS-B 13-14 with accompanying explanatory volumes K13-K14. With this, all that Kierkegaard published during his lifetime, have been made digitally accessible.

Besides adjustments in connection with this extention and minor corrections, the search tool has been extended with a so-called Google Custom Search, so that Google can now easily be used as alternative to the build-in search engine.

 

Preface to version 1.4

In addition to version 1.3, version 1.4 comprises Kierkegaard's journals from the period 1850-54:

•	Jounals NB15-36

corresponding to SKS-B 23-26 with accompanying explanatory volumes K23-K26. With these journals, all Kierkegaard's journals have been published.

Furthermore the technical rendering of Kierkegaard's writings, explanatory notes etc. have been changed. A writing is now collected in one file, and the reader may choose to view all the text in context or to view separate chapters, entries, or notes. The files are now published as xml files, see the technical guide.

 

Preface to version 1.3

In addition to version 1.2, version 1.3 comprises Kierkegaard's published writings from the period 1846-50. That is:

•	En Literair Anmeldelse (A Literary Review),
•	Opbyggelige Taler i forskjellig Aand (Edifying Discourses in Various Spirits),
•	Kjerlighedens Gjerninger (Works of Love),
•	Christelige Taler (Christian Discourses),
•	Lilien paa Marken og Fuglen under Himlen (The Lily in the Field and the Bird of the Air),
•	Tvende ethisk-religieuse Smaa-Afhandlinger (Two Ethical-Religious Essays),
•	Sygdommen til Døden (The Sickness unto Death),
•	»Ypperstepræsten« – »Tolderen« – »Synderinden« (»The High Priest« – »The Tax Collector« – »The Woman Who Was a Sinner«),
•	Indøvelse i Christendom (Practice in Christianity),
•	En opbyggelig Tale (An Edifying Discourse) and
•	To Taler ved Altergangen om Fredagen (Two Discourses at the Communion on Fridays).

These published writings correspond to SKS-B vols. 8-12 with accompanying explanatory volumes K8-K12. An overview of the writings together with their placement in SKS-B sorted on demand, is found by selecting Indhold (content) in the menu to the left.

 

Preface to version 1.2

In addition to version 1.1, version 1.2 comprises Kierkegaard's published writings from the period 1838-46. That is:

•	Af en endnu Levendes Papirer (From the Papers of One Still Living),
•	Om Begrebet Ironi (The Concept of Irony),
•	Enten – Eller (Either/Or),
•	Gjentagelsen (Repetition),
•	Frygt og Bæven (Fear and Trembling),
•	Philosophiske Smuler (Philosophical Fragments),
•	Begrebet Angest (The Concept of Anxiety),
•	Forord (Prefaces),
•	To opbyggelige Taler (Two Edifying Discourses), Tre opbyggelige Taler (Three Edifying Discourses), Fire opbyggelige Taler (Three Edifying Discourses) from 1843 and 1844 respectively,
•	Tre Taler ved tænkte Leiligheder (Three Discourses on Various Occasions),
•	Stadier paa Livets Vei (Stages on Life's Way), and
•	Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift (Concluding Unscientific Postscript).

These published writings correspond to SKS-B vols. 1-7 with accompanying explanatory volumes K1-K7.

Kierkegaard's published writings have until now been accessible in an electronic version created by Alastair McKinnon (1988), based on Søren Kierkegaard: Samlede værker (), ed. by P.P. Rohde, 3. ed., 20 vols. (Copenhagen 1962-64). The McKinnon text also constituted the basis for the edition published by InteLex in the Past Masters series (1991).

 

Preface to Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (Søren Kierkegaard's Writings), electronic version 1.1

Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (Søren Kierkegaard's Writings), hereafter abbreviated SKS, is a new, complete edition of all extant materials from Kierkegaard's hand. SKS is being published by the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark. The texts are divided into four categories:

•	Published writings, including newspaper articles, with surviving drafts. Published writings is understood to mean those works published by Kierkegaard himself, from his first newspaper article from 1834 through the ninth issue of The Moment (Øieblikket) from 1855.
•	Unpublished writings, including newspaper articles, that Kierkegaard contemplated publishing, with surviving drafts. "Unpublished writings" is understood to mean both those works Kierkegaard had ready for publication, but which were only published after his death, e.g., The Point of View for My Work as an Author (Synspunktet for min Forfatter-Virksomhed), and those works he had not readied for publication, e.g., The Book on Adler (Bogen om Adler).
•	Journals, notebooks, and loose papers, as well as Kierkegaard's annotations, underlining, etc. in books.
•	Letters and biographical documents, including handwritten dedications Kierkegaard wrote in books.

SKS consists of a printed book version, abbreviated SKS-B, and an electronic version, abbreviated SKS-E.

SKS-B contains all the texts in the four categories, apart from the drafts of the published and unpublished writings. These texts are distributed among twenty-eight volumes of text, accompanied by twenty-seven volumes of explanatory materials. Each volume of explanatory materials has its volume number preceded by the letter "K" and contains critical accounts of the texts (tekstredegørelser), explanatory notes (realkommentarer), lists of standard abbreviations, calendars, maps, and concordances to Søren Kierkegaards Papirer (Søren Kierkegaard's Papers), hereafter abbreviated Pap. The publication of SKS-B was begun in 1997; the publisher is Gads Forlag. As of March 2007, eleven volumes of published writings (vols. 1-11) and six volumes of journals and notebooks (vols. 17-22) have appeared, together with their accompanying volumes of explanatory materials (vols. K1-K11 and K17-K22).

In establishing and presenting the texts, SKS differs from previous editions in four important respects:

•	The manuscripts are presented as archival units, e.g., as the booklets, notebooks, and journals in which they were found at Kierkegaard's death.
•	The journals, notebooks, and other papers are reproduced in a two-column format that corresponds to Kierkegaard's practice; he generally creased the pages vertically and wrote his main text in a slightly wider inner column, reserving a slightly narrower marginal column for subsequent additions and comments. Reproducing the texts in this fashion preserves the connection between the substance of an entry and its marginalia.
•	Kierkegaard's own alterations and corrections (genetic variants) are identified, thus making it possible to reconstruct Kierkegaard's writing process.
•	Critical accounts of the texts and explanatory notes facilitate access to Kierkegaard's writings, not only by specialists, but also by the general reader with an interest in Kierkegaard.

SKS-E contains:

•	SKS-B
•	Expanded explanatory notes.
•	All drafts of the published and the unpublished writings.
•	The second editions that Kierkegaard published in his lifetime, as well as the manuscripts and corrected proofs of these editions.

The portion of SKS-E presented here includes the texts that have been published in SKS-B as volumes 17-22, together with their accompanying volumes of explanatory materials, volumes K17-K22.

The present version of SKS-E is designated as version 1.1. The first "1" indicates that the contents of SKS-B have not been revised in this electronic version. The second "1" indicates that this is the first of a series of versions that will appear over time. The designation of edition and version, e.g., 1.1, 1.2, 2.1, will thus serve as an unambiguous way of referring to texts taken from SKS-E.

Version 1.1 includes 39 journals and notebooks:

•	Ten journals written in the period 1833-1846, to which Kierkegaard assigned the titles AA, BB, CC, DD, EE, FF, GG, HH, JJ, and KK.
•	Fifteen notebooks written in the period 1839-1849, to which SKS has assigned the titles Notebook 1 through 15.
•	Fourteen of a total of thirty-six journals, written in the period 1846-1855, to which Kierkegaard assigned the titles NB, NB2, NB3, etc., ending with NB36.

Since SKS presents the text of the journals and notebooks in a somewhat different sequence than that in which they appear in Pap., the materials have been assigned a new numbering system. This numbering system refers to the name of a journal or notebook and to the number of the entry in that journal or notebook. For example, DD:208 refers to entry number 208 in Journal DD, and Not8:5 refers to entry number 5 in Notebook 8.

As already noted, in an effort to reproduce Kierkegaard's own practice, SKS employs a two-column format, both in the book (SKS-B) and the electronic (SKS-E) editions, though it has not always been possible to reproduce Kierkegaard's occasionally complex and chaotic notations exactly. This is the case, for example, when Kierkegaard wrote along the edge of a page. In such situations the text as published in SKS is sometimes supplemented with a facsimile of the manuscript page itself; see, e.g., NB11:125. Kierkegaard normally preferred to write in a neo-gothic hand, which is reproduced in SKS-B with the Palatino typeface, and in SKS-E with the Georgia typeface. Similarly, Kierkegaard's Latin hand is reproduced in SKS-B with the Optima typeface, and in SKS-E with the Tahoma typeface. (See the Guide.)

SKS-E contains expanded explanatory notes that were omitted from SKS-B owing to considerations of space. Typically, these expanded explanatory notes consist of lengthy passages from works that are discussed in Kierkegaard's journals. This is the case, for example, in entry JJ:7.a, where it is stated "see also the same volume, pp. 8, 9, 10, concerning a poem by Bishop Synesius that is worth reading." In SKS-B the explanatory note to this entry provides bibliographic information regarding "the same volume" mentioned by Kierkegaard, Herders Werke. Zur schönen Litterature und Kunst (Herder's Works: On Literature and Art), along with a reference to SKS-E, where the entire poem is available.

[SKS-E consists of 8,507 files, formatted to the HTML 4.01 standard.] The entire mass of textual materials – i.e., Kierkegaard's writings, the explanatory notes, and the critical accounts of the texts – has been marked up in an XML format developed specifically for SKS, »Kierkegaard Normalformat 1.« [The HTML files have been created on the basis of the XML files. [the implementation has been altered in this respect by version 1.4]] This is explained in more detail in the Technical Guide.

SKS-E is available on the net without charge. This is the first time this portion of Kierkegaard's writings has been made available in this manner, and it is the first time that SKS's reorganization of Kierkegaardian materials has been put into digital form. In 1988, an electronic republication of Pap. was undertaken by Alastair McKinnon, and in 2002 the InteLex Corporation published Journals and Papers (based on Howard V. Hong's and Edna H. Hong's English translation, Søren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers, 6 vols. (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1967-1978)) in its Past Masters series.

The colleagues who have established the texts, written the critical accounts of the texts and the explanatory notes, and edited these materials are named on the colophon pages accompanying each document. And all colleagues who have participated in producing the edition are listed in a separate section. Gratitude is expressed to all those who have made the edition possible.

At its start, Søren Kierkgaards Skrifter was published with the support of a grant from Danmarks Grundforskningsfond (The Danish National Research Foundation) as a part of its support for Søren Kierkegaard Forskningscenteret ved Københavns Universitet (The Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre at Copenhagen University). Beginning in 2004, the continuing publication of the edition has been supported by a supplemental grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture.