ABSTRACT
In a letter from Søren Kierkegaard to his close friend Emil Boesen from October 1843-the letter has no specific date-one finds the rather laconic information: “I do not own Blicher’s short stories.”1 This information seems to imply that the philosopher does not show much interest in this contemporary Danish writer, but this is in fact misleading as is evidenced by Kierkegaard’s somewhat flippant review, From the Papers of One Still Living,2 of Hans Christian Andersen’s novel Only a Fiddler.3 This review in conjunction with his analysis of the Danish short story writing around 1830 not only gives a very precise and laudatory presentation of Steen Steensen Blicher as a short story writer but also indicates that he has a thorough knowledge of his oeuvre. In addition, in his journals we find several indications of Kierkegaard’s preoccupation with Blicher.
