Models of My Life.

SIMON, Herbert A.

Item Number: 5012

New York: Basic Books, 1991.

First edition of this work by the Nobel Prize-winning economist. Octavo, original half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “To Dwight Harris with best wishes, Herbert A. Simon 3 November 1994.” Fine in a fine dust jacket.

Simon observes himself as an object for scientific inquiry in this refreshingly innovative autobiography. Principal architect of the field of artificial intelligence, this polymath has applied the metaphor of a decision-making maze to human cognition, management science, economics and politics--winning a Nobel Prize in 1978. Instead of a dry, rationalist exercise, this traipse through the branching paths of his personal labyrinth turns out to be a quirky, soul-baring self-analysis. In early chapters on his introspective Milwaukee childhood, he refers to himself in the third person as "the boy." He is equally objective in discussing his 1930s flirtation with political radicalism, his half-century-long marriage and the politics of scientific infighting. This is a disarming self-portrait by a gifted writer who believes that the real self is an illusion and that one's life need not have a unifying thread.