Talk:Nathan Altshiller Court

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Name?[edit]

Any clues as to what was his Polish name before he changed it? --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 21:14, 16 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

While we are at it, I have seen several sources which hyphenate Altshiller-Court (including from the 1920s, but especially notable is the use of the hyphenated form by Dover in reprinting Modern Geometry) but others that imply that Altshiller is a middle name and Court a last name. Is there any definitive way to settle this? –jacobolus (t) 02:23, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There's a newspaper article from the Ardmore Daily Ardmoreite, 1919-03-27, p. 11:

Professor Changes Name in Becoming a Citizen Norman, Okla. March 26.—Final citizenship papers were approved by District Judge Fletcher Swank here yesterday for Nathan Altshiller, assistant professor of mathematics in the University of Oklahoma. In becoming a citizen Altshiller changed his name to Nathan Altshiller Court. He was born in Russian Poland.

The name is presumably a spelling variant of Altschuler (Альтшуллер). –jacobolus (t) 02:58, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Piotrus: Birth name Natan Altszyller as recorded in European schools. - Altenmann >talk 05:06, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

That's a school in Belgium. What alphabet was used by Polish Jews in 19th century Warsaw? –jacobolus (t) 05:44, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Latin, Hebrew, Yddish? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 12:56, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

You forgot Russian :-) In the Belgian school the distinctly Polish spelling was used. A transliteration from Yiddish/Hebrew or Russian would have looked differently. - Altenmann >talk 15:52, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Family[edit]

The 2nd ref says "Dr. Court is survived by his wife, of Norman, and a son, Dr. Arnold Court." Englisch is not my native language, so I am puzzled what "of Norman" could mean? - Altenmann >talk 04:29, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Norman, Oklahoma is the town where he lived. –jacobolus (t) 05:42, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Einstein[edit]

The text David W. Levy contains plenty of personal info about court, including an amusing anecdote about comparing him with Einstein (in appearance). Now that you added a photo, it does make sense to me :-). Can you summarize more from this ref (my English is sloppy, otherwise I could have done this myself). - Altenmann >talk 07:21, 27 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]