The Scottish Book
The story of the Scottish Book reflects the long-gone times and places.
Before World War II, the city of Lwow belonged to Poland.
A group of mathematicians, including Stanislaw Ulam, Stefan Banach,
Mark Kac, S. Mazur, Hugo Auerbach, Hugo Steinhaus, W. Orlicz
and many others, frequently met in coffee houses
"Cafe Roma" and "Cafe Szkocka" (="Scottish Cafe"), where they discussed
many mathematical problems. In 1935 a large notebook was purchased by
Banach and deposited with the head waiter of the "Scottish Cafe".
Mathematics questions/problems which after considerable
discussions were found suitable
were recorded in the "book". Occasional visitors (Henri Leon Lebesgue,
John von Neumann,
Waclaw Sierpinski) also recorded their problems there. Some of the problems
were solved immediately or shortly after they have been posed. Quarter
of the problems remain unsolved to this day. When WWII started, Lwow
was occupied by the Soviet Union and became part of Ukraine. The last
entry into the book was made on May 31, 1941, - less than a month
before the the war between Germany and Soviet Union began. The book
was found after the war by the son of Banach (who died in 1945)
in Warsaw. It was given to Steinhaus who in 1956 sent a copy of it
to Ulam in US.
Every problem in the book carries the name of the person who suggested
the problem. Frequently a prize is offered for solution of the problem.
Prizes range from "two small beers" to "fondue" in Geneva.
The book contains about two hundred problems, written mostly in Polish,
but also in German, Russian, French and English. The book was translated
to English and published in Los Alamos by Ulam in 1957.
It came to be know among mathematicians as "The Scottish Book".
Later a corrected
reprint was made in 1977. In 1981 a version with comments, as well as
lectures of "The Scottish Book Conference" was published by Birkhauser
publishers (Boston) under the name "The Scottish Book (Mathematics from the
Scottish Cafe)" edited by R. Daniel Mauldin.