BREV TIL: Louis Hjelmslev FRA: Roman Jakobson (1946-04-02)

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JaJtobson, R. 'f-

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ROMAN JAKOBSON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK 27. N. Y.

April 2,1946 Dear Louis:- I am profoundly grateful for your so friendly letter.Curiously enough,on the same day with your letter I received anses letter from a Stockholm colleague inquiring in the name of the ''-'dor of that University whether I would accept a .ir of Slavonic Lnaguages.Your letter apared me the necessity of writing an answer.I had supposed that beginning with the coming academic yearot I should he at Oslo,hut I supposed there had arisen unforeseen difficulties there and thus,at least, I interpreted the non-arrival of answers to my Decern- her letters written to Sommerfelt,Morgenstierne,anu Seip.Meanwhile Columbia University offered me a chair of Slavonic Languages.The offer was attract! ve and interesting and demanded immediate answer, and so I accepted the invitation presumably for éh three years.Dut I am still holding close to my heart my Scandinavian sentimental and scientific ties, both of us hope ini the no distant future to pay a visit to both Oslo and Copenhagen and I trust in intimate co-rork with the Scandinavian friends,for the nonce - from a distance. , I have received the first issue of your Circle s TRAVAUX and have read it with absorbing in- .rest,but I should dearly love to have all other publications of the Circle,beginning Autumn 1942, and I am ready to send remittance for bill to Munks- gaard.Will the TRAVAUX be issued parallel to the Acta,or have you decided to suspend the ACTA? I urgently beg you to send us for WORD even an abstract from your article which your publi- shing in "Danish Scientific Activities", became the paper in WORD will reach many more linguists through out the Few XMX World.

I have numerous news from Czechoslovakia. The Circle continues to work in spite of difficult conditions.Mathesius died shortly before the Wa War s end and Kofinek last aut-uirin.Havrq.nek is now Professor of Slavistics in Prague.Doroszewski is still working in Warsaw University.Recently a cable arrived here from Kurylowicz who is still staying in Lwow .Devoto was active in the -underground and is n&w again in Florence.Benveniste and Martinet are in- tensively working in Paris.Firth is now the leading man in London linguistics,Isatchenko is Professor of Russian in Bratislava I had a brief card from Rosetti who continues working in Bucharest. I should be deeply obliged of you get in touch by letter yourself or through one of our co- mrnon frilands with Helge Paulsen and obtain from him for transmission to me the photostats of the 17th Century Rusåian MS from the King Library wl ich were made for us by the Rask foundation.I should like to le&rn whether Paulsen wants to continue his collabo- ration with me on the edition of this manuscript, especially as concerns its German part.In any case, I shall be happy to complete my work on this MS and t< to publish it with my comprehensive commentary as early as possible and no matter where - Copenhagen, Oslo, or here.I repeat I shall be extremely grate- ful,if you secure thqse photostats for me.As you may probably recall,Hammerich was au courant of the en- tire matter, With heartiest greetings to him,Holger edersen,Hoeg and other friends, and,above all,to your whole family from Svata and myself,

Yours as ever