My Years with Ludwig von Mises
Preface
THIS BOOK will hardly answer any questions about economics. It is not a book of scholarly wisdom. But it will answer many personal questions about my husband, Ludwig von Mises.1
When Ludwig von Mises died on October 10, 1973, newspapers and magazines all over the world published articles, memoirs, quotations, evaluations and reviews of his work and life. But no journalist, no economist wrote about him as a man, as a human being. Many people drew my attention to this. They could not understand the reason.
The explanation is simple. My husband was a very reserved person. While he was kind and friendly to all, he was extremely self-restrained and uncommunicative about his own life and affairs. He never talked about himself or his family. His work, his writings belonged to the world. His feelings belonged to me. I have reason to believe that I am the only person who really knew him.
That is why I have written this book. The desire to bring him closer to his admirers and to the many students who loved him and stood in awe of his genius eventually grew so strong within me that it became almost an obsession. By telling the story of our life together, I shall try to reveal Ludwig von Mises as he really was: a great thinker, a great scholar, a great teacher—but still a lonely man with a great need for love and affection.
2 Pronounced Meeses.
