John von Neumann's 1935 letter to Oswald Veblen

John von Neumann (1903–1957) and Oswald Veblen (1880–1960) later in life

The book John von Neumann: Selected Letters* by Miklós Rédei (2005) is a fascinating collection of 150 of John von Neumann (1903-57)’s correspondences from the period 1920 until his death in 1957. Among his extensive communications included in the book are:

• Four letters to Kurt Gödel (1906–1978), from 1930-33

• Two letters to Norbert Wiener (1964–1909), from 1945–46

• One letter to J. Robert Oppenheimer (1903–1957), from 1948

• Four letters to Stanislaw Ulam (1909–1984), from 1936–43

• One letter to Paul Dirac (1902–1984), from 1934

• One letter to Edwin Schrödinger (1887–1961), from 1936

• One letter to Edward Teller (1908–2003), from 1947

• One letter to Hans Bethe (1906–2005), from 1941

• Two letter to Pascual Jordan (1902–1980), from 1949–50

Also included are seven letters to von Neumann’s friend and colleague at the Institute for Advanced Study, mathematician Oswald Veblen (1880–1960) from the period 1930 (when the IAS was founded, se…