Re: Grothendieck's writings

[Michael Barr <barr@barrs.org>]

To reiterate what I said in my original posting on the subject: No.  A
Russian translation does exist, but the original does not.  And Roy's very
small beginning is the only one available in English AFAIK.

Let me take this opportunity to describe the experience I had trying to
get permission from Grothendieck.  Some made the suggestion that TAC
reprint the Tohoku paper.  I had recently met one Jean Malgoire (not
Magloire, incidentally) who claimed to be the unique mathematician who is
in communication with Grothendieck.  I started by writing the editors of
Tohoku since in my experience these rights were kept by the journal.  They
told me that the rights were held by Grothendieck.  So I wrote to
Malgoire.  He replied that it was so unlikely that Grothendieck would
agree that he would not ask him.  Later someone told me that in fact,
Malgoire had full authority as Grothendieck's literary executor.  I don't
know if this in fact true, but even so he may well have felt that going
against Grothendieck's known wishes was inadvisable (although he could
have explained that to me, instead, apparently, of lying).  So I assume
that Grothendieck didn't want the original posted.  By the way, the third
word of the title is "semailles" (sowings, not seeds).

On Thu, 8 Jul 2004, Max Kelly wrote:

> Recent communications about Grothendieck's "Recoltes et semelles" refer
> to the partial translation by Roy Lisker - but none, as far as I recall,
> gives an electronic reference to the French original. Is it not
> available in this form?
>
> Max Kelly.
>
>
>
>