Letter to the National Scientific Publishers written 08.01.1964

Prof. Roman Ingarden
Krakow, Biskupia 14                          c                                        Rabka-Zdrój, Stasin, Słoneczna 76
        c                  c                  c                  c                  c                              January 8, 1964

National Scientific Publishers PWN
Finance Department

Warsaw

        c         I confirm the receipt of the letter from December 28, 1963 L.Dz. Fin /?/ 298/II-11/63, signed in typescript Z. Gieburowski, handwritten signature difficult to read, but I do not believe it was Mr. Gieburowski. I hve received this letter on 1/7/1964.
        c         In response to said letter, I would like to report the following:
        c         1. The PWN Publishers’ letter of October 28, 1963, referred to in the above-mentioned letter, was withdrawn by means of the letter L.dz. SO 325/63 signed by Director Bromberg from December 19, 1963, and I was apologized to for it on behalf of the whole team. I have also returned it to PWN Publishers in a letter dated December 23, 1963. Therefore, I thought that I should consider it null and void, so I do not understand how the letter from December 28, 1963 could refer to it. PWN Publishers should probably re-formulate their claim citing a new basis for it.
        c         2. In a letter dated December 28, 1964, I mention my /financial, as it is easy to infer/ “obligation”, which is to refer to the amount of PLN 9 603, which PWN is currently demanding from me. In no way, either verbally or in writing, have I agreed to cover the costs of contracts concluded by PWN Publishers with any other persons, in particular with Ms. Maria Turowicz. There is, however, a PWN Publishers’ claim against me for that sum, a claim that is not in line with the manner of conduct of PWN Publishers hitherto. It would only become my commitment had I recognized its legitimacy and undertook to cover the aforementioned sum, which is not the case.
        c         3. The letter from October 28 has been written in typescript and signed by I. Krońska, but it was, in fact, signed by hand by Mr. Szancerowa. I do not know whether Ms. Irena Krońska is can be held accountable for it. I make a note of this, because, as you can see, not all PWN departments consider that this letter to have been withdrawn.
        c         4. The matter of covering the translation costs of my work “Intuition at Intellekt bei Henri Bergson”, which was part of my book Collection of Research on Contemporary Philosophy, and the title of which was mistakenly mentioned in the letter from October 28, 1963, was raised by me in a conversation with Ms. Irena Krońska about three years ago when we discussed the composition of this volume of my Philosophical Works. In response to my question whether PWN will cover the costs of this translation, Ms. Krońska gave me a confirmatory answer. It may be that Ms. Krońska was not sure at the moment whether her statement would be recognized by the relevant PWN authorities, but neither the Finance Department nor any other PWN Branch have informed me in any way that they did not approve of Ms. Kronska’s statement, therefore I had assumed that it xx had been approved by the relevant PWN authorities. This assumption was then confirmed, in my conviction, by the fact that PWN has concluded a contract for the translation of my work with Ms. Maria Turowicz. I could not suppose that this contract, concluded between the two parties of PWN Publishers and Ms. Maria Turowicz, is not to be financed by the PWN, as the contract must state, but from my private funds. As far as I understand, if this contract were concluded – so to speak – on my behalf, the contract would have to have been supplemented with my written authorization giving PWN the right to enter into such a contract with this kind of reservation. I did not provide such authorization, nor did anyone ask me for it. Therefore, both Ms. M. Turowicz and I had every reason to believe that the costs of this contract will be borne by the PWN. If this were not to be the case, this agreement was misleading both towards Ms. Turowicz and xx me. I suppose that had Ms. Turowicz known for what purpose and in what sense this contract was to be concluded, she would never have signed it.
        c         4. The matter of covering the translation costs of my work “Intuition at Intellekt bei Henri Bergson”, which was part of my book Collection of Research on Contemporary Philosophy, and the title of which was mistakenly mentioned in the letter from October 28, 1963, was raised by me in a conversation with Ms. Irena Krońska about three years ago when we discussed the composition of this volume of my Philosophical Works. In response to my question whether PWN will cover the costs of this translation, Ms. Krońska gave me a confirmatory answer. It may be that Ms. Krońska was not sure at the moment whether her statement would be recognized by the relevant PWN authorities, but neither the Finance Department nor any other PWN Branch have informed me in any way that they did not approve of Ms. Kronska’s statement, therefore I had assumed that it xx had been approved by the relevant PWN authorities. This assumption was then confirmed, in my conviction, by the fact that PWN has concluded a contract for the translation of my work with Ms. Maria Turowicz. I could not suppose that this contract, concluded between the two parties of PWN Publishers and Ms. Maria Turowicz, is not to be financed by the PWN, as the contract must state, but from my private funds. As far as I understand, if this contract were concluded – so to speak – on my behalf, the contract would have to have been supplemented with my written authorization giving PWN the right to enter into such a contract with this kind of reservation. I did not provide such authorization, nor did anyone ask me for it. Therefore, both Ms. M. Turowicz and I had every reason to believe that the costs of this contract will be borne by the PWN. If this were not to be the case, this agreement was misleading both towards Ms. Turowicz and xx me. I suppose that had Ms. Turowicz known for what purpose and in what sense this contract was meant, she would never have signed it.
        c         5. It was not until August of 1963 that I learned from a private letterxxxx from Ms. Krońska that the relevant PWN parties were considering charging my account with the sum paid to Ms. Turowicz, which I also immediately protested against in my private letter. Officially I was only informed in a letter from October 28, 1963 what the purpose of the contract /concluded almost three years earlier/ with Mr. Turowicz was, and that PWN, without asking me, has made an arbitrary decision to charge my account with a sum equal to the amount /as I assume/ paid to Ms. Turowicz. At the same time, the letter does not demand that I pay this sum, but instead charges it to my account, presumably on account of my future income at the PWN Publishers. The letter from December 28, 1963, in turn, mentions “the obligation to immediately collect all debts”.
        c         6. As can be seen from the above, in the summer of 1963 there was a change in PWN’s position as to who actually is to cover the costs of the contract with Ms. Turowicz. Whether this change occurred because of any new regulations that were not in force when the contract was being concluded or because some mistake has been made upon the conclusion of this that should now be rectified, it is none of my affair. Whatever the case might have been I should have been notified of a change in PWN’s position or the possible mistake, and PWN still had an opportunity back then to settle the matter by asking me to empathize with PWN’s position and agree to take over the sum payable to Ms. Turowicz. However, this did not happen, instead I received the letter from October 28, informing me of an already made decision and the justification was that Director Bromberg found it appropriate to ask for the return of the letter and was apologizing for its content. Which I xxxxxxxx have accepted and returned the letter, considering the whole case to be closed. Meanwhile, on January 7, I have received a new letter, which assumes the validity of the statement in the letter from October 28, 1963 /in particular, the unilateral decision as to – as is written therein “my debt”/ and demands from me a declaration as to how I “desire” to “settle my obligation”.
        c         I cannot consider this manner of conduct of the PWN Publishers /or rather, one of its departments/ to be appropriate towards one of the oldest and most outstanding Polish scholars and an author who agreed to publish six volumes of his works under the PWN Publishers, and I would like to once again reiterate my protest against it. I also do not consider it appropriate for relations between a publisher and an author in general.
        c         7. The letter from October 28, 1963 has caused me irritation for several weeks, as I never expected that type of behavior towards me. This has had a negative influence on my health (especially since I am already over 70) and I have since been in treatment with prof. Aleksandrowicz. ECG showed myocardial damage.
        c         8. In this state of affairs, my health and the ability to conduct my scientific research in peace in the time I have left have is more important to me than the money in question and proving to PWN that they are wrong in their decisions regarding this matter. I also want to spare Ms. I. Kronska any upsetting situations, especially since Ms. Krońska has always acted with good intentions both towards me and towards PWN. I also would not wish Ms. Turowicz to find out about this whole affair, and she would have to find out if I were to pursue any legal solutions.
        c         For these reasons, although I remain convinced that the PWN Publishers’ claim is unfounded, I have decided to transfer the sum of PLN 9 603 to PWN to cover the costs that PWN had incurred in connection with the conclusion of the contract with Ms. Maria Turowicz. At the same time, I believe this to be the fastest way to stop receiving any more letters from PWN similar to the two mentioned above. The aforementioned sum will be transferred by a PKO Bank transfer to the PWN Publishers’ account in the near future.