Leo Wiener z Białegostoku, pionier slawistyki w Ameryce Północnej

Abstract

The article is devoted to Leo Wiener, a prominent self-taught scientist, an immigrant from Poland, who along with Archibald Coolidge laid the foundations for the American Slavic Studies at the turn of the twentieth century. Wiener, the author of many translations of Slavic literature into English (including all Tolstoy’s works), was the first professor of Slavic languages in North America. The main character of this article was a multi-talented man, who was most passionate about foreign languages and mathematics. His language skills were estimated to include more than thirty languages. The Harvard professor has left a very diverse legacy: from translations through history books and books on culture, to his memoirs. The article reconstructs the youth of the scientist, spent in Białystok, the circumstances in which he found himself in America, and the first difficult moments in the new country, as well as the time of his university work. In order to present the biography of this eminent scientist, the author of the article uses Leo Wiener’s personal notes, the memoirs of his son Norbert, as well as memoirs of scientists who have met the Jewish polyglot-genius in the course of their work.