The subject of orthogonal polynomials is a classical one whose origins can be traced to Legendre's work on planetary motion. With important
applications to physics and to probability and statistics and other branches
of mathematics, the subject flourished through the first third of this century.
After the publication of Szego's well known treatise on the subject, interest
in orthogonal polynomials began to wane as mathematicians turned their
attention to increasingly greater abstraction.