HAYEK (Friedrich August von)., Edited with an Introduction., HAYEK (Hella)., Translator. & CANTILLON (Richard).

Abhandlung über die Natur des Handels im allgemeinen.

First edition thus. Small 8vo. lxix, [1, blank], [2], 207, [1, blank] pp., with a 8 pp. publisher’s prospectus loosely inserted at rear. Original orange printed wrappers, edges untrimmed (contents clean and entirely unopened; extremities slightly worn with a few tiny nicks and minor creasing, front cover with heavy partial offsetting and long closed tear to along top edge, another long closed tear at foot of front joint with small loss to spine, notwithstanding a nice example of this rare and fragile publication). Jena, Gustav Fischer, 1931.

£500.00

A German edition of Richard Cantillon’s foundational Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en General, translated by Hella Hayek (née von Fritz) (1901-1960), the first wife of Friedrich August von Hayek, and with an introductory essay and commentary throughout by Hayek himself. The translation was Hayek’s initiative, intended to be form part of a potential ten-volume book series of classics in monetary theory that would include Thornton’s Paper Credit, although the project would never fully come to fruition.

Hayek’s ugly divorce of Hella in 1950 coincided with his move from the LSE to the University of Chicago and, quite rightly, caused enormous controversy amongst his friends and colleagues, in particular leading to a decisive break between Hayek and Lionel Robbins (see Caldwell & Klausinger, Hayek: A Life, 1899-1950, p. 10).

Cody & Ostrem, E-3.

Stock No.
253481