My Years with Ludwig von Mises.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

More documents

Recommendations

Info

In regard to your request about von Mises" NationaloekQnomie. ... My own belief that it is important that it be published here is based on my knowledge of all the work of von Mises that has been published or translated into English as well as the knowledge I have gained from conversations with him. I should like to say that in my opinion, excellent as the two books are that the Yale University Press has already published, the works that hitherto have been translated out of the original German are even better and more important. These are his works on Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis and The Theory ofMoney and Credit. The first of these volumes was the first Mises volume I had ever read. It struck me as by far the most profound and important critique of the whole theory and implications of socialism that has ever been written-not excluding the classic work of Boehm-Bawerk, which was narrower in scope. Mises" Theory of Money and Credit, Professor Lionel Robbins of the London School of Economics wrote in his introduction, "has long been regarded as the standard text book on the subject"" in continental circles. Nationaloekonomie is von Mises" book on general economic principles. It is the central trunk, so to speak, of which the subject discussed in his book on money and his book on socialism are merely the branches .. It is the fundamental theory of which the conclusions in the books on Socialism and Money are the corollaries. It is many years since a first-rate comprehensive book on basic economic principles has appeared in English. I think, therefore, that a book by Mises translated and brought up to date would have a very important effect on economic thought in America. On February 1, 1945,Lu had a letter from Professor Hayek, in which Hayek informed Lu that he would be lecturing in April at Columbia, Chicago, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Stanford universities and would see us in the first days of April. Lu wrote to Hayek on February 23, 1945: The news of your impending lecture tour· is very gratifying. It is almost a public sensation. You probably do not realize how great the success of your book is [The Road to Serfdom], and how popular you are in this country.... The Yale Press plans to publish a revised English edition of my Nationaloekonomie. I have already started to write it. But as the book is rather voluminous and its publication involves a considerable investment, the Press"s new Board wants to have a statement on the book"s importance from a renowned economist. As practically no American economist·reads foreign language books, you are the only scholar who could write such an appraisal. ... In July, 1945, Lu sent Yale University Press' Donaldson another explanatory letter about Nationaloekonomie, telling him: 107
The German language edition of my Nationaloekonomie published in 1940 in Switzerland, has 756 pages. For the English edition I am trying to eliminate all critical references to European doctrines unknown or long since discarded in the Anglo-Saxon countries. But on the other hand I must deal more thoroughly than I did in the original edition with doctrines popular in America, especially with the Keynes-Hansen approach. I think these changes will shorten the length of the Manuscript as compared with the 1940 text. I know very well that conciseness is one of the main virtues in a book and I am eager to do my best. But a treatise dealing with the whole complex of economic problems must be more voluminous than a monograph. On May 7,1948, the Yale University Press acknowledged receipt of parts of the manuscript. Eugene Davidson wrote: "The new section is here and I am glad to see that you are close to the goal now. Norman Donaldson has just reminded me of a serious oversight on our part, that we were to pay you as each section of the manuscript is received and approved. That clause in the contract completely slipped everyone's attention here, and please let me know how you would like the matter handled. That is, how you would prefer to have the installments reach you from here on. As a possibility I would suggest that we Inake a lump payment for the months that have passed and then continue according to schedule. But we will be pleased to meet your wishes." Lu answered on May 12, 1948: "Thanks for your letter of May 7. I fully agree with your suggestion and leave the determination of the amount of the lump sum payment for the months passed to your discretion." Nothing can prove more clearly how much the work meant to Lu, how little he cared for money, how completely he forgot about himself, than these two letters. Printing of Human Action was well on its way by 1949. Davidson supervised everything; not the slightest detail was unimportant to him. He wanted a perfect book and a satisfied author. He even sent Lu a proof of the binding of the book for his approval. On May 31, 1949, Norman Donaldson wrote to Lu: "Advance copies of your Human Action have now reached us and we have sent one copy to you.... Our probable publication date is September 14....1 hope you are pleased with the way the book has turned out. It is a big handsolne volume and looks all of the $10.- price that we are placing on it. May I take this occasion to extend to you Iny personal congratulations on your successful completion of this immensely iInportant piece of work." Lu hnmediately confirmed receipt of the advance copy and thanked Donaldson. On June 7, 1949, Donaldson answered: "It is a great pleasure to have your note in response to your first copy of 108
Page 2:
~T~ -with ~"chrig VO~~C~
Page 5 and 6:
Copyright © 1976 by Margit von Mis
Page 8 and 9:
THIS BOOK will hardly answer any qu
Page 10:
~T~ Jritb ~"dwig voq,~ecJ
Page 13 and 14:
I did not know my maternal grandfat
Page 15 and 16:
mann was interested. He used to cal
Page 17 and 18:
were Fritz Kortner (King Philip), w
Page 19 and 20:
again with Moissi as a guest. But o
Page 22 and 23:
CHAPTER II IT WAS in autumn 1925, w
Page 24 and 25:
him with great affection, even thou
Page 26 and 27:
did many good things. She was presi
Page 28 and 29:
tried their best to get his attenti
Page 30 and 31:
succeeded in laying the groundwork
Page 32 and 33:
One day Lu told me he had been offe
Page 34 and 35:
International Studies) in Geneva, S
Page 36 and 37:
When the Germans marched into Vienn
Page 38:
often beaten to death. Schuschnigg
Page 41 and 42:
apartment was small, just large eno
Page 43 and 44:
face almost emotionless. I wore a r
Page 45 and 46:
crossword puzzle that one cannot so
Page 47 and 48:
order into France to shop for their
Page 49 and 50:
ight where you are." In this case,
Page 51 and 52:
the top of Mount Saleve, the so-cal
Page 53 and 54:
sation. Friends met at private hous
Page 55 and 56:
where they took X rays and confirme
Page 57 and 58: other American universities. I trus
Page 59 and 60: today? We tried-and were sent back.
Page 61 and 62: house where I lived, when suddenly
Page 63 and 64: good friends from the institute in
Page 65 and 66: interest in getting Lu established
Page 67 and 68: versity of Buffalo, also came to se
Page 69 and 70: steady flow of visitors from out of
Page 71 and 72: Germany at the time of the installa
Page 73 and 74: a store for postcards and knick-kna
Page 76 and 77: CHAPTER VI ~o~ont~ bt~exico IN NEW
Page 78 and 79: was told, by the lack of silver nit
Page 80 and 81: time we were wrong. We arrived at 2
Page 82 and 83: uilt completely of stone. The dinin
Page 84: e~ghty men sitting at long tables.
Page 87 and 88: His manual dexterity was zero. But
Page 89 and 90: unimportant. More important was .th
Page 91 and 92: ian Paul Mantoux, was the most dist
Page 93 and 94: called, for dinner at the Plaza. Th
Page 95 and 96: States. We are today practically a
Page 97 and 98: impression Lu had on this trip was
Page 99 and 100: It was a touch of genius combined w
Page 101 and 102: especially tense while driving. As
Page 104 and 105: CHAPTER'VIII I SHOULD know Human Ac
Page 106 and 107: Davidson wrote to Lu: "Both George
Page 110 and 111: Human Action. We are delighted that
Page 112 and 113: graphs are transposed. On page 615
Page 114 and 115: are clumsy, inept, inefficient and
Page 116 and 117: Myself at fourteen. Here I am in 19
Page 118 and 119: Doing military service in Vienna, A
Page 120 and 121: Lu without his books! Lu at the whe
Page 122 and 123: At the home of Sylvester Petro: Pro
Page 124 and 125: Fritz Machlup and Lu at the celebra
Page 126 and 127: Henry Hazlitt and Lu during one of
Page 128 and 129: My daughter, Gitta, myself, and Lu
Page 130 and 131: Fall 1964. PHOTO BY DAVID L. JARRET
Page 132 and 133: Our last picture together, December
Page 134 and 135: CHAPTER IX ~"~~O~ ~enJbutr Lv's SEM
Page 136 and 137: He himself was completely absorbed.
Page 138 and 139: Percy Greaves first came to the sem
Page 140 and 141: He was working with the Air Force o
Page 142: years, when the seminar was held at
Page 145 and 146: I finally had to ask the help of hi
Page 147 and 148: don't want you to talk to him," he
Page 149 and 150: published in.the Financial and Comm
Page 151 and 152: morning with the view of the Austri
Page 153 and 154: asked him what part he played in Ma
Page 155 and 156: ever mentioned, in dealing with the
Page 157 and 158: work on the whole subject of direct
Page 159 and 160:
Action, I read every other book of
Page 161 and 162:
oken up. I had suggested to Benegas
Page 163 and 164:
with his family. In 1964 he founded
Page 165 and 166:
the walls of economic principle, th
Page 167 and 168:
How much this award reveals about t
Page 170 and 171:
CHAPTER XI Our~a§t ~al78Toget4er O
Page 172 and 173:
his vacation. But when he did, I wo
Page 174 and 175:
paper last, and it gave Lu an oppor
Page 176 and 177:
nnished the session with a short ta
Page 178 and 179:
old acquaintance and as his most ho
Page 180 and 181:
he said to me: "The only goodthing
Page 182:
of the National Federation of Indep
Page 185 and 186:
Central-European currencies know ho
Page 188 and 189:
Tribute to Ludwig von Mises byF. A.
Page 190 and 191:
war and his being called up for act
Page 192:
had occurred in Professor Mises' li
show all

My Years with Ludwig von Mises.pdf - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?