FIRST DANISH TRANSLATION OF ONE OF SARTRE'S TWO MAIN PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS

SARTRE, JEAN-PAUL.

Eksistentialisme er humanisme. (Oversat fra den franske originaludgave L'existentialisme est un humanisme af Anders Thuborg).

København, Kronos, 1946. Lille 4to. Ubesk. i orig. omsl. Omslag en anelse brnplettede, ellers et nydeligt, rent og friskt eksempler. 122, (2) pp.

Small 4to. Uncut in the orig. wrappers. Minor light brownspotting to wrappers, otherwise a very nice, clean, and fresh copy. 122, (2) pp.

Originaludgaven af den første danske oversættelse af det andet af Sartres to filosopfiske hovedværker, som begge udøvede stor indflydelse på det 20. århundredes filosofi og bidrog væsentligt til udviklingen af eksistentialismen. Den danske oversættelse er trykt samme år som originalen og udgør formentlig den nydeligste udgave typografisk set. Værket er trykt særdeles nydeligt, med brede marginer og på godt papir.

The first edition of the first Dansih translation of the second of Sartre's two main philosophical works, which have both influenced 20th century philosophy greatly, and contributed immensely to the development of existentialism in general. The Danish translation is printed the same year as the French first edition, and typographically probably constitutes the best edition. It is a very nice print with wide margins and on good, thick paper.

"Existentialism is a Humanism" became one of Sartre's most widely read and most critcized works, and it caused great controversies and uproar at the time of its appearance; -as opposed to his "L'Être et le Néant", all of Sartre's critics actually read this work, and so did huge parts of the population, causing the book to appear in huge numbers after the publication of the first edition.
The work is the literary re-working of an exposition given by Sartre at a conference in October 1945, where he caused a scandalous discussion, which among other things led to the fact that all references to the existentialist T.E. Lawrence were omitted from the work when it appeared in print. "Cette conférence marqua une date dans l'histoire anecdotique de l'existemtialisme..." (Contat & Rybalka p. 131).
"L'Existentialisme est un Humanisme" fut l'un des ouvrages les plus lus et les plus critiqués de Sartre et suscita de considérables malentendus. Comme l'a bien vu M.-A. Burnier dans "Les Existentialistes et la politique" (p. 31), "l'importance prise par ces pages semble due à la paresse d'un bon nombre de critiques qui hésitant à lire "L'Être et le Néant" et qui furent heureaux de pouvoir attaquer Sartre sans grande fatique et avec bonne conscience après avoir parcouru 141 pages." Il est bon de rappeler cependant que l'ouvrage constitue une assez mauvaise introduction à la philosophie de Sartre, surtout pour un public non averti..." (Contat & Rybalka p. 132). Sartre himself also disowned great parts of this work, which makes it all the more interesting, since it is the only one of his works of which he has done so.

The work was reprinted numerous times during the first years, and the first edition (on vellum-paper) is very difficult to come by.

Order-nr.: 48898