Baker-Bellman

See Index to Correspondents for a list of correspondents, as they are not listed individually here.

Although correspondence makes up only about sixteen per cent of the entire collection, it contains some of the most valuable research material. Of course some of the letters deal with personal, practical, legal, and financial affairs, but many by both Bochner and his colleagues discuss scholarly matters in such detail and at such length that they could almost be considered unpublished works, amply demonstrating the profundity and breadth of Bochner's ideas and interests and the influence he exerted in the realm of mathematics and the history of science. His correspondents included many of the most distinguished scholars of the twentieth century from such diverse disciplines as art, classics, mathematics, linguistics, biology, physics, philosophy, and history.

Chronologically, the bulk of the correspondence falls within the period from 1968 to 1982 when Bochner was at Rice University. Any documents attached to a letter were not separated; therefore, any single item may contain any number of leaves of both correspondence and other related material. The letters are arranged into two sections: incoming in alphabetical order and outgoing in chronological order. Because almost all of the letters are dated, one may locate a correspondent who wrote to Bochner in both Part I of the Index of Correspondents and the papers themselves, and use the date on the letters to follow the correspondence into the chronological files. Similarly, because Bochner kept carbon or photographic copies of almost all of his letters, one interested in a particular period of Bochner's life or work may begin with the chronological arrangement and follow the trail of individual correspondents of interest within the alphabetical section. Those to whom Bochner wrote have been listed in Part II of the Index of Correspondents.