"The primary source for any understanding of either the man or his thought." — The Times (London) Literary Supplement Denmark's foremost philosopher and religious writer, Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) maintained a journal throughout his adult life that amounted to more than 7,000 pages of alternative drafts of published works, biographical events, musings, and outpourings. A precursor of the Existential movement and a major influence on modern Protestant theology, Kierkegaard confided to his journal further reflections on the ideas developed in his philosophical and theological works, and on his tumultuous career as an author. The English periodical, The Tablet, declared that "there can be few books in English that admit the reader so intimately to a process of thinking on such a scale, at so many levels, so unflinching and direct." Indeed, the journals attest to the philosopher's lively imagination, his poetic powers of self-expression, and the brilliance of his intellect. Students of philosophy and literature are bound to agree with The New Statesman 's assessment that, "No biography can take the place of these Journals for the understanding of Kierkegaard’s very peculiar position as a thinker."