ABSTRACT
This article argues that the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–55) evolved as a library user over the course of his life and career. Whereas the libraries of Copenhagen were initially only collections of books for Kierkegaard (for his academic and, later, literary projects), by the end of his days, in the midst of his attack on the People's Church of Denmark, Kierkegaard began to conceive of the library (or, to be more precise, the reading rooms of the Athenæum Society) as a performative political space in which he could existentially realize the steps he had counseled in his polemics; by appearing conspicuously in the Athenæum on Sunday mornings, Kierkegaard modeled resistance against the institutionalized Christianity of Denmark. Included is a comprehensive analysis of Kierkegaard's explicit references to Copenhagen's libraries and their materials in his journals and papers, as they appear in Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (Søren Kierkegaard's writings).
