Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Walter Block on Murray Rothbard

The following exchange took place between Walter Block and Ms. X:


From Ms. X:

You’ve published lots of material Does it take a long time to do so?

From Walter Block

It takes me a lot of time to write articles, books, etc. How about you?

Ms. X:

Me too. It's the preparation that takes me a long time. Writing seems to go pretty quickly. But I very much admire how prolific you are.
Of course, the all time champion in this regard is Murray Rothbard. I've always wondered how he could possibly write so many books and articles in his lifetime, and so brilliantly. He must have had everything in his head. Pure genius.

WB:

I’ve not counted how many words Murray and I have published, but, I think, I’m creeping up on him. I would never have the audacity to compare myself to him on quality of our publications, but, for all I know, I might now be close to him in quantity. I’ve published over 20 books and am getting towards 500 refereed journal aricles, plus, I don’t know, several thousands (??) of op eds. Saying that Murray is a pure genius is almost like damning him with faint praise, but not quite. I am delighted that I was his friend. Oh, by the way, Murray co-authored one piece, I think in his entire life. Guess who with? Yes, me. Hey, here’s where I’ve got him beat, cold. I must have, oh, maybe, 100 coauthors?

Ms. X:

Wow. That's so impressive. I knew you'd written over several hundred papers, but I didn't realize you'd published that many books. I don't know how you can do it.
What was the paper you coauthored with Rothbard?

WB:

‘twas this:

Rothbard, Murray N. and Walter E. Block. 1987. “Introductory Editorial,” Review of Austrian Economics, Vol. 1, pp. ix-xiii; http://www.mises.org/journals/rae/pdf/rae1_1_1.pdf

Ms. X:

Walter,

Talking about the word genius not being an adequate enough word to describe Rothbard, I'm always amazed at how seemingly intelligent people can fail to recognize the brilliance of the man. Of course, you have to have a certain amount of intelligence just to able to see genius, but the fact that he's ignored by so many in academia can only mean this failure is the product of a horribly corrupt and

WB:

No truer words were ever said.

Best regards,
Walter

1 comment:

  1. I once said to Walter (gushing): "And I've read ALL your books!!". He said "ALL?" Oops. So maybe 5. I recovered rather lamely with "I'm the World's greatest hyperbolizer!"

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