Deine Sonia: A reading from a burned letter. (Translated by David E. Rowe) (Q1200115)

The author gives an English translation of the (German) fragment of a first draft of a letter, which Sonya Kovalevskaya (1850-1891) sent in early December 1883 from Stockholm to her former teacher Karl Weierstraß (1815-1897) in Berlin. This is the only remaining document that has survived from the many letters she addressed to Weierstraß, who burned all letters after Kovalevskaya's death in February 1891. The draft gives a description of Kovalevskaya's arrival in Stockholm, where she would teach mathematics at the University for the remaining years of her life. Mathematical problems are not addressed in this letter. The author of this paper explains at some length how he came accross this draft in the Mittag-Leffler-Institute in Djursholm (near Stockholm) and gives a short and sympathetic account of Kovalevskaya's life. A more detailed report as well as the original text will be presented by the author in Historia Mathematica.