When I was chief editor

• Authors: Stasiewicz-Jasiukowa I.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The authoress, Editor-in-Chief of 'Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki' in the years 1975-1987, recollects difficult times, encompassing both the period of martial law in Poland and the dynamic years adjacent to it. Yet, paradoxically perhaps, these years were also conducive to the development of the Quarterly, to the consolidation of its significant position in the world of science, and to the intellectual inspirations of the authoress. There were several factors that contributed to that situation: 1- The Quarterly initiated a scheme for the writing and systematic publication of scholarly autobiographies by the most eminent Polish scientists of the 20th century; 2- An active intellectual milieu which understood the sense and the social significance of the history of science and technology coalesced around the Quarterly, due to - among other things - the so-called autobiographical meetings, which brought together the scholarly and cultural elite of those times; 3- Every now and then, issues of the Quarterly were published in the major international languages, or at least thematic blocs appeared that were written in those languages, and papers by foreign authors translated into Polish were published in the Quarterly as well. She describes the context in which some of the autobiographies of eminent scientists published in the Quarterly under her stint as editor had been written and the complications that surrounded their discovery. The paper also contains letters to the authoress as editor of the Quarterly. One such letter, which is of very special value, was written by the internationally renowned scholar, Prof. Janusz Groszkowski, who explained why he could not accept the Quarterly's invitation to write an autobiography. Other letters, e.g. the letter by Prof. Zdzislaw Libera, constitute an interesting supplement to the autobiographies published in the quarterly, supplying information based on first-hand knowledge of their authors. Part of the current paper is devoted to the circumstances surrounding the plans for publishing the autobiographies that appeared in the Quarterly in a four-volume edition by the 'Mlodziezowa Agencja Wydawnicza MAW' (Youth Publishnig Agency). The first volume, which took very long to appear, never found its way to bookshops, but instead was stored for pulping. The second volumes was destroyed even before being bound; there could be no talk of publishing the remaining two volumes, as the publishing house was dissolved. In the last fragment of the paper the authoress explains the reasons for her decision to resign from the position of Editor-in-Chief of 'Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki'.

Keywords

EN

FIFTY YEARS OF 'QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY'

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Instytut Historii Nauki Polskiej Akademii Nauk
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 9-35
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Stasiewicz-Jasiukowa I.

• I. Stasiewicz-Jasiukowa, no address given, contact the journal editor

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

06PLAAAA01212748