Spencer Heath Archive

Item 2280

Carbon of letter from Heath to Ludwig von Mises, 777 West End Avenue, New York City

May 21, 1942

Dear Prof. von Mises:

I was very much pleased to hear from my good friend Dr. Ehrenhaft that you found the sample pages and table of contents of my “Energy Concept of Population” and asked him to let you look at the entire volume. I hope he has done so and that the complete work has not been a disappointment to you.

 I have been thinking and writing along lines that seem to me of very great public importance and with conceptions and points of view that seem to have received very little attention heretofore but which I think ought to be extensively developed much more than I have done so and by persons more capable and in better position for doing it. I have covered so much ground and in such unfamiliar territory I dare say there is much that is crude and inadequate in what I have done, even if accurate. If you have the time and opportunity as well as the interest to read critically I shall certainly appreciate and value highly any comments, constructive or otherwise, that you will be good enough to make. I am not under any urgent necessity of publication. In fact, I would much prefer to have it discussed and criticized in its present easily alterable form by several persons of scholarly standing like yourself before going any further with it.

 It was kind of you to suggest to Dr. Ehrenhaft that you would like to talk things over with me. I am sure I shall be delighted to have that opportunity. I expect to be in New York soon but probably not until after the 28th. Please let me know when would be a convenient time to see you.

                                   Very truly yours,

SH/M