Correspondence with Individuals and Organizations, 1935-2010 and undated

Scope and content:

Includes Samuelson's professional correspondence not only with economists, but with organizations and professionals in other domains, including political figures such as Presidents John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. There are many notable economists represented in the series, including Sir John Hicks, Frank Knight, Peter Bernstein, John Chipman, Don Patinkin, Milton Friedman, Franco Modigliani, and others. Scholars from other disciplines, among them Noam Chomsky and Alfred J. Lotka, are also present. Correspondence ranges from letters in the 1930s by Hicks and Knight to posthumous correspondence on special journal issues about Samuelson's life and work. Prolific correspondents include Bernstein, Chipman, and Patinkin.

Along with letters, some files contain drafts of articles or research, usually with Samuelson's enclosed comments or feedback; one of the earliest documents is a 1935 exam given in Jacob Viner's economics course at the University of Chicago. Other files include correspondence by several authors on specific subjects such as "Latane, Tobin and Markowitz on risk and uncertainty in portfolio management." There are also files containing documents related to particular organizations, publication, and countries or regions, such as China, India, Korea, and South America.

Arranged alphabetically. Each letter group begins with general correspondence folders, followed by folders labeled either by correspondent, institution, topic, group, or region.

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