MEMORANDUM

meant, the publisher told Leontief, that the end-of-year conventions of AEA, ASA and
Econometric Society were missed as an opportunity for disseminating and propagating the
book, and that “next year we shall certainly be able to include the book in the exhibits at
the meetings”. 233 But next year United States was at war which reduced the general
academic interest in new books (but increased the interest for others, such as the Bureau of
Labor Statistics).
On 11 December 1940 Leontief, still in Berkeley, received the last of the page proofs
and realized that the Quesnay quote was missing and he immediately sent a duplicate. It
turned out that HUP had forgotten about but Leontief’s reminder arrived in time to insert it.
Leontief also asked for the dedication “To My Father and Mother” to be included and
appropriately placed.
Just after New Year 1941 the journey continued to Mexico City where the family lived
in a rented flat in Rio Lerma 76, not far from the central avenue Paseo de la reforma. In
his first letter exchange with Gilboy from Mexico he asked for his six complimentary
books to be sent to his five Harvard colleagues Chamberlin, Harris, Haberler, Mason and
Schumpeter and one to his parents, at the time living in Leontief’s house in Vermont.
Gilboy suggested only six journals for review copies, “as no one is sending review copies
to European journals at the moment”. 234 Leontief added one more US journal and the
Canadian Journal of Economics.
The fifth of February, 1941 was too early to celebrate the book, it would still take a
month, but it was celebration nevertheless. Svetlana had her fifth birthday that day and it
was celebrated outside in the large patio of Rio Lerma 76. Svetlana danced to the music of
a band playing.
Gilboy wrote on 5 March when the book had been out for one or two weeks. She could
report that HUP so far had sold eighteen copies of the book. Leontief commented that
eighteen copies didn’t seem to indicate a very lively demand. In fact that turned out to be
fair judgement on the total sales of the book. HUP printed 614 copies of the book in 1941
and it took six years to dispose of them. 235 The price proposed by HUP was $2.00 or $2.50
based on the number of pages. This book was of course a lot more expensive to print than
most, if not all, other books of the same size. Leontief had earlier suggested $3.50 as a fair
price. Gilboy decided that the price would be $2.50 without seeking Leontief’s consent.
She was in this process not only an intermediary between Leontief and the HUP, she also
represented the Harvard Committee which had already paid HUP an agreed subsidy of
$1375.
233 D.T. Pottinger, Harvard University Pres to Leontief, 29 November 1940.
234 Gilboy to Leontief, 29 January 1941. The six journals were Econometrica, JASA, AER, QJE, J.
of Math. Statistics and JPE.
235 Parys (2016).
110