Jean Louis Maxime van Heijenoort ( ; ; ; July 23, 1912 – March 29, 1986) was a French-Dutch historian of mathematical logic. He was also a personal secretary to Leon Trotsky from 1932 to 1939, and an American Trotskyist until 1947.
Life
Early life
Jean van Heijenoort was born in 1912 in Creil, Oise, France, as a son of a working class family. His birthday is 23 July. He had a Dutch father ( 1885), a Dutch man who moved to France and a French mother ( 1887). They got married in 1910. According to French nationality law, Balagny became Dutch. Her husband died in September 1914 during World War I. Van Heijenoort must suffer the hateful emotion by French Chauvinism against people with a German or Dutch name. Van Heijenoort always was called as , "dirty German".
In 1949 the widow Balagny remarried; was her second husband. For this marriage, she restored her French nationality. A daughter was born. And Van Heijenoort spent several years with the mother's sister, also a widow, who had 2 daughters.
Death
Van Heijenoort was murdered by his fourth wife Anne-Marie. When Van Heijenoort tried to divorce, Anne threatened to commit suicide. "Of course, she wants to kill me too", he said to a friend. In March 1986, he returned to Mexico City from Stanford. He was shot three times and Anne shot herself thereafter.
Personal life
Van Heijenoort had children with two of his four wives. While living with Trotsky in Coyoacán, Van Heijenoort's first wife left him after an argument with Trotsky's spouse.
Van Heijenoort was also one of Frida Kahlo's lovers; in the film Frida, he is played by Felipe Fulop.
Selected works
Books which Van Heijenoort edited alone or with others:
References
Sources
External links
- Perspectives on the History and Philosophy of Modern Logic: Van Heijenoort Centenary special issue of Logica Universalis for Jean Van Heijenoort Centenary with papers by Feferman, Feferman, Hintikka, Jan Wolenski etc.
- The Lubitz TrotskyanaNet provides a biographical sketch and a selective bibliography [more complete than Feferman's] of Jean Van Heijenoort
- A Guide to the Jean Van Heijenoort papers, 1946–1988
- How the Fourth International Was Conceived by Jean Van Heijenoort, August 1944
- Jean van Heijenoort Internet Archive