Models of My Life.

SIMON, Herbert A.

Item Number: 108944

New York: Basic Books, 1991.

First edition of this work by the Nobel Prize-winning economist. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated. Signed and dated by the author in the year of publication, “Herbert A. Simon 13 November 1991.” Fine in a fine price-clipped dust jacket. Jacket design by Janet Halverson.

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.