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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Hilbert’s Legacy: Projecting the Future and Assessing the Past at the 1946 Princeton Bicentennial Conference

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Saunders Mac Lane on Solomon Lefschetz (Mac Lane 1989, 220): In 1940 when he was writing his second book on topology, [Lefschetz] sent drafts of one section up to Whitney and Mac Lane at Harvard. The drafts were incorrect, we wrote back saying so – and every day for the next seven or eight days we received a new message from Lefschetz, with a new proposed version. It is no wonder that the local ditty about Lefschetz ran as follows: Here’s to Lefschetz, Solomon L Ir-re-pres-si-ble as hell When he’s at last beneath the sod He’ll then begin to heckle God.