FROM YOUTH TO PROFESSOR 



THE EARLY YEARS 



i 888-1 905 



Albert Jan was the second child and only son sprung from the mar- 

 riage of Jan Cornells Kluyver and Marie Honigh. His father, born 

 May 2, i860, in Koog aan de Zaan, came from a family of merchants 

 who for many generations had been living in the Zaan district, a 

 region in the vicinity of Amsterdam. The family name is associated 

 with ships; a 'kluiver' is a jib. Jan Cornells and his somewhat elder 

 brother, Albert, both were outstanding students at the but recently 

 established secondary school in Zaandam, and the first members of the 

 family to continue their formal education after graduating from this 

 school. Albert chose the study of Letters at Leiden University, became 

 editor of the Netherlands' Dictionary, and afterwards professor at the 

 University of Groningen. Jan Cornells attended the Polytechnical Col- 

 lege in Delft where he received the engineering degree, and at the age 

 of 32 became professor of mathematics in Leiden. Thus the studies of 

 these two brothers have notably enriched Dutch scholarship. 



The first position occupied by Jan Cornells was that of instructor in 

 mathematics at the Governmental High School in Breda (1883). Dur- 

 ing his first year there he married Marie Honigh, likewise from the 

 Zaan district, and who at the time was teaching in Haarlem (born 

 September 27, 1859, in Zaandijk). In Breda a daughter was born to 

 them, and a few years later, on Sunday, June 3, 1888, the son, 

 Albert Jan. In 1890 the family moved to Amsterdam, where Kluyver 

 had been appointed to the faculty of the Municipal High School at 

 the Weteringschans. Thence he was called to the professorate at 

 Leiden University, in 1892. Both in Amsterdam and in Leiden the 

 family was augmented by the birth of a daughter. In 1896 the Uni- 

 versity of Groningen conferred upon Jan Cornells Kluyver an honor- 

 ary doctorate. 



In Leiden the family first occupied a none too cheerful house in the 

 Rembrandtstraat, though it commanded from the rear a magnificent 



