The Point Of View

As a spiritual autobiography, Kierkegaard's The Point of View for My Work as an Author stands with such great works as Augustine's Confessions and Newman's Apologia pro vita sua - but with a difference. It is neither a confessional autobiography nor a defense. It is an author's story of a lifetime of writing, his understanding of the common aim and comprehensive coherence of the maze of his greatly varied pseudonymous and signed works. Entries in the Supplement document the context and development of the writings on the authorship as a whole. In addition they disclose Kierkegaard's considerations as he wrestled with decisions about publishing the three works and other works that were "the fruit of the year 1848...the year of my richest productivity".

As a spiritual autobiography, Kierkegaard's "The Point of View for My Work as an Author" stands with such great works as Augustine's "Confessions" and Newman's "Apologia pro vita sua"--but with a difference. It is neither a confessional autobiography nor a defense. It is an author's story of a lifetime of writing, his understanding of the common aim and comprehensive coherence of the maze of his greatly varied pseudonymous and signed works.

In an earlier work, "Concluding Unscientific Postscript," Kierkegaard acknowledged his authorship of the series of pseudonymous works that began with "Either/Or," With the imminent publication of the second edition of "Either/Or," the pseudonymous series would come full circle, and Kierkegaard again intended to cease writing. Now was the time for a direct "report to history" on the authorship as a whole. In addition to the resulting "Point of View," which was published posthumously, the present volume also contains the companion pieces "Armed Neutrality" and "On My Work as an Author," a contemporary substitute for the postponed "Point of View,"

Supplementary entries taken from "Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers" document the context and the development of the writings on the authorship as a whole. In addition, they disclose Kierkegaard's considerations as he wrestled with decisions about publishing the three works and other works that were the "fruit of the year 1848 ... the year of my richest productivity."