The Author

LIKEthe famous British economist Walter Bagehot, whom he admires, Henry Hazlitt has been a writer in diverse fields—literary criticism, philosophy, politics, economics and finance. He was literary editor of The New York Sun from 1925 to 1929, literary editor of The Nation from 1930 to 1933, and succeeded H. L. Mencken as editor of The American Mercury in 1933. One result of his ten years of book-reviewing was “The Anatomy of Criticism,” published in 1933. His deep interest in political questions led to the book, “A New Constitution Now,” published in 1942.

But except for the interruption of the years devoted to literary criticism, Henry Hazlitt’s dominant interest, since he first became a reporter on The Wall Street Journal more than thirty years ago, has been in economics and finance. In 1916 he became a member of the financial staff of the New York Evening Post. During our participation in the first World War he was in the air service. On his return to civilian life he wrote the financial letter of the Mechanics & Metals National Bank, then one of the ten largest banks of the country but since absorbed by The Chase National Bank. He was only 26 when he became financial editor of the New York Evening Mail. After the disappearance of the Mail through its purchase by Frank A. Munsey he became a member of the editorial staff of Munsey’s New York Herald, a position which he held until that newspaper in turn was acquired by and merged with The New York Tribune.

In 1934 Mr. Hazlitt became a member of the editorial staff of The New York Times, and in that capacity he wrote most of its financial and economic editorials. He also later wrote the Monday financial column. He remained on the staff of The Times for twelve years, and in September 1946, he became the writer of the Business Tides column for Newsweek. In 1946 he published “Economics In One Lesson,” one of the few serious economic works to become a best seller in recent years. The book has been published also in England, and French and Spanish translations will soon appear.

Mr. Hazlitt has addressed many business and university audiences. Early this year he spent a month in Mexico as a visiting lecturer at the Instituto Technologico, and studied economic conditions in that country. This spring he spent two months in Europe, visiting half a dozen countries—Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland, Sweden and Great Britain—and writing a series of articles on European conditions which appeared in Newsweek.