Books

First editions, in the original wrappers, of the complete series of Reconstruction in Europe, published in twelve supplements to the Manchester Guardian Commercial, under the general editorship of John Maynard Keynes, with contributions by other notable authorities including A. C. Pigou, Irving Fisher, Luigi Einaudi, and Gustav Cassel. Much of Keynes's material was reworked into his Tract on Monetary Reform (1923). The series discussed the economic problems and potential solutions for Europe in the aftermath of the war and the new peace settlement. It was published in five languages and included pioneering data visualization with new graphical forms of data journalism. The Manchester Guardian Commercial had a wide readership among the business community and economic policymakers and helped cement Keynes' international reputation. "During 1922 the great Manchester Guardian supplements, twelve in number, were the main vehicle for the expression of Keynes' views. They were entitled Reconstruction in Europe and covered the whole field of finance, industry, trade, and labor. Some of the issues were general, some specialized on some such topic as shipping or oil. To almost all Keynes contributed an introductory article, which summarized the subject and usually had some interesting ideas... In the first issue there was a lengthy article on "The Theory of purchasing power parity" and another one on "Forward Exchanges," which give a full account of the theory, which he subsequently summarized in his Tract on Monetary Reform" (Harrod, pp. 312-13). READ MORE Complete in twelve sections, folio. Original brown wrappers printed in red and black. Housed in a dark blue cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Wrappers with some soiling, a few sections with old inert fungal discoloration, some general creasing and short closed tears, some wrappers a little loose with that of section 5 detached, some staining to contents of a few parts. Section 1 with minor marginal loss not affecting text, and issue of Die Rote Fahne (21 April 1922) loosely inserted; section 5 with a closed tear at head of pp. 3-6 repaired (slightly affecting text without loss), pp. 301-5 loose, and terminal leaf chipped with slight loss; section 6 with a couple of ink crosses on the terminal page, ownership signature to front wrapper; section 10 with some pencil annotations and pp. 625-8 loose, ownership signature to front wrapper; section 11 with ink annotations to pp. 658-60, pp. 677-88 loose, a few English newspaper clippings loosely inserted; section 12 with some pencil annotations and stained with old inert fungal discoloration at foot. Overall a good to very good set in the fragile original wrappers. Roy Harrod, The Life of John Maynard Keynes, 1951.