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PL

Letter from Władysław Tatarkiewicz written 30.03.1969

Warsaw 30.3.1969

            Dear Roman.

            Thank you for your letter ‒ now I know where to look for you. I’m not surprised that these trips and problems with visas have upset you and that you have no desire to travel again. One possible consolation is that crossing the ocean in March could have been very unpleasant.

            In my case as well, as you probably know already, the trip didn’t come off; worse yet, due to illness. The passport-visa-ticket aspect was arranged without a hitch, with the good help of the Foreign Relations Office. But a week before departure my wife slipped on black ice and broke her arm. Of course, I couldn’t go alone. I wired that I wouldn’t be at the Conference of aestheticians in London; in response, I had a phone call asking me to send the typed manuscript, and in fact I managed to do that through a medical colleague who was on his way there. – Because all of the preparations have been made (visas, foreign currency, flights), I have a slim hope that we’ll still go on the lecture circuit in May: London-Cologne, Aachen-Toulouse. But it depends on whether there are complications connected with her broken arm; theoretically, the plaster cast will be taken off in a week, and the bandage in two.

            I regret that I couldn’t be in London for personal reasons as well, because correspondence with people such as Aler or Pareyson is impossible.

            I’m not going to Heidelberg (even though that memorable place has attracted me since I was young).

            You’ve probably already received offprints from Culture and Society. I also received some from ‘XXX’ (that Wawel lecture), but with disgraceful errors.

            I sent my conclusions about co-opting Iza into IIP in a letter to Klibansky ‒ noting that you are also in solidarity with this candidacy. As far as I understood from my conversation with Kotarbiński, he hasn’t sent the conclusions about Kołak. yet.

            Probably you already have a list of candidates for the Polish Academy of Sciences. My guess is that your reaction is similar to mine.

            When asked about History of Philosophy, I didn’t want to consent to the deletion of certain surnames, preferring to give up the bibliography completely (only the most general studies of history as a whole and editions of works by certain philosophers and their Polish translations remain; no monographs).

            If – in spite of everything – we go abroad, it won’t be until the last few days of April. Maybe you’ll be in Warsaw before then?

                                                                                           A cordial handshake

                                                                                                                       WT