Letter from Irena Krońska written in 23.09.1946

Author Irena Krońska

Category incoming correspondence, Polish researchers in Roman Ingarden's correspondence

Archive Archive of Science PAN in Cracow

Date of creation 23.09.1946

Reference code in archive K_III-26_D_38

Resource type letter

Subject matter personal issues, scientific issues

Field philosophy

Tags #? Chevalier, #atmosphere in Paris, #Bibliotheque Nationale, #Bolek Miciński, #certificate, #collaborationism, #content, #dispute between idealism and realism, #Dissertation on form, #exams, #financial problems, #form, #Grenoble, #idealism, #Ingarden's work, #Irena Krońska, #Laffrey, #lectures, #Napoleon, #Napoleonic road, #prison, #realism, #Ryszard Ganszyniec, #Sorbonne, #studies in Paris, #studying French, #University of Grenoblin, #vacation, #war, #Władysław Tatarkiewicz, #work on idealism and realism

Uriage, 9/23/1946

Dear Professor,

   c    I have received Professor’s letter and the photocopy – which I thank you very much for – with a delay, because they were only just sent to me from Paris, which I left for vacation in August.
   c    Thank you very much for certifying my exam. If you get Ganszyniec’s address in the meantime, I would be very grateful if you could kindly send it to me.
   c    I read the dissertation on form with great interest and pleasure. I would like to know what place it occupies in the entire work on idealism and realism, and I am looking forward to the latter all the more impatiently. Do the different concepts of form and content appear as essential to the dispute between idealism and realism and its équivoques in there, or do different understandings of these concepts appear more so as consequences of the already assumed position – idealistic or realistic?
   c    I did not send Professor the previously promised bibliography, because upon leaving Paris I lost my library access. I am returning to Paris in the middle of next month and I will send you the information from there.
   c    We are spending our vacation in the Alps near Grenoble. My husband was invited here for a few lectures on the history of philosophy, so we came together to relax a bit after those war years that did not know holidays. But although the air here is certainly healthier than in Paris, we would like to go back as soon as possible, we miss this wonderful city, its intellectual mood, and the libraries – down to the Sorbonne. The University of Grenoblin is very modest in every respect. As for the professors you might know here, Professor Chevalier is in prison – for his participation in the Vichy government and for collaborationism. The university library is poorly equipped. Besides, we have not really met anyone, since it is the holiday season – but there really seems to be nothing interesting here.
   c    Grenoble and the surrounding area are historically pleasing – Grenoble and Vizille pride themselves on having started a great revolution. Yesterday we went down the famous Napoleonic road to Laffrey, where Napoleon, after coming to Marseille from Elba in March 1815, spoke to the royal forces hostile to him and made them join his side. Today at the spot of the famous meeting you can admire a statue of Napoleon on a horse – and the place itself is beautiful, by the lake, at the foot of high mountains. – In Laffrey we have also visited the grave of my husband’s friend and colleague, Bolek Miciński (Tatarkiewicz’s M.A. student), who died there of tuberculosis in 1943.
   c    I am also working here with the exams in mind, mainly on French, which I have to master enough so that I can write with good style – and this is very difficult. A lot of work awaits me in Paris. The conditions for studying are, of course, great, I mainly worked in the Bibliothéque Nationale – but financial problems are a difficult issue – it is hard on us, because in Poland everything was taken away from us in the war, we had to sell everything left, and the rest, i.e. the flat and everything that was in it was burned down by Germans during the uprising. And life in France is very expensive, from what I can gather from letters from Poland, the franc’s purchase power is more or less the equivalent of zloty when it comes to basic necessities.
   c    But I shall leave it off here with regards to material matters, those are hard everywhere today. And I should be finishing in general.

Deepest respect
and friendly regards from both of us
c c c c Irena Krońska