Franciszek Leja (1885–1979) i jego wspomnienia Dawniej było inaczej

Abstract

Franciszek Leja (1885–1979) and His Memoirs Dawniej było inaczej (‘It Was Different in the Past’) The article aims to present previously unpublished memoirs of mathematician Franciszek Leja, spanning the years 1885–1958 – from his birth to his participation in the International Congress of Mathematicians in Edinburgh. Leja recalls the childhood of a peasant son struggling with poverty, his education at the folk school in Grodzisk and the public school in Leżajsk. Then he describes his studies at a gymnasium in Jarosław and at the University of Lviv (Lwów). He recalls the difficult path to obtaining a doctorate and habilitation at a time when he had to balance his scientific studies with work in Galician junior high schools (1910–1924) and briefly describes his scholarship in France and England (1912/1913, scholarship from the Kretkowski Fund). The penultimate section consists of Leja’s recollections from a 12-year period of work at the Warsaw University of Technology, where he was a professor of mathematics at the Faculty of Chemistry, and when he took over the chair of mathematics at the Jagiellonian University in 1936 and then from his scientific visit to France, which took place on the eve of the war. The last, unfinished chapter was devoted to his recollections of the arrest of Jagiellonian University professors on 6 November 1939, his clandestine teaching during the war, and his post-war visits abroad. The memoirs are preceded by Leja’s short biography. Numerous footnotes were added, expanding and correcting the information provided in the original text and illustrations.