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PL

Letter from Władysław Tatarkiewicz written 12.02.1968

12 February 1968

Dear Roman, I’m still in Berkley – and we want to stay here until the end of March: I’m still lecturing (on a reduced scale, to older students) in the winter trimester. I like the students here; relations with them are pleasant. I’ve improved my weak English; I can lecture freely enough. This week we were in Los Angeles for a few days; I had lectures there at the Univ. of Southern California and at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. It will be May, however, by the time we return to Poland, because we’re supposed to spend April in New York, and return on the Batory, which will again take close to two weeks.

                I often confirm something of which I have always been convinced: that you are by far the best-known Polish philosopher in the States. Recently an English translation of yours was brought to me so that I could check whether it faithfully corresponded to the original. In the Library you’re well represented, not only by translations but also by Polish editions. Among others, Prof. Harrell is interested in you; she lectures at the nearby State College in Hayward, and is an extraordinarily helpful person (something I experienced myself: she was of great help to me in preparing the translation of History of Aesthetics for press). She and I are designing the publication of a small anthology of Polish contemporary aesthetics, including Chwistek and Witkiewicz: the design has certain prospects for success.

            What are my plans in terms of congresses for this summer? After so many months in America, I’ve had no desire to travel abroad again; ; but I think it’d be good to be at Uppsala, especially since (as XXX told me) one meeting is supposed to be dedicated specifically to the project ‘Corpus Theoriae antis’. Żółkiewski wrote to me that there are no funds at the Polish Academy of Sciences for my trip. I’ll try to bring a little currency from here for the Uppsala Congress. However, I’m not thinking about Vienna.

            I wrote to Ossolineum asking them to provide you with copies of Volume III of History of Aesthetics; I hope they’ve done so.

                                               Cordial greetings to both of you dear people from both of us

                                                                                                                             WT

 

 

/written along the sides/

In Los Angeles, we were looked after by a very likeable native of Lviv, Szczepan Zimmer, who’s a librarian there.

I’m supposed to make a couple of excursions from N. York, among others, to Buffalo, where I’m going to see Faizer.