16 - Stroke and After

Summary

Harry's health began to break down in 1972. Years of very heavy drinking were taking their toll. He found his temper more difficult to control, even in letters some time after the event. On 11 August he complained to Don Patinkin of feeling “overconferenced” and that going to such events had become a “habit” (Box 40, Correspondence 1972–7). He was also becoming forgetful: He invited Ruth Towse to a LSE Higher Education Research Unit party and then stood her up. As he later reported to Mark Blaug, Ruth's husband:

My invitation was genuine; the stand-up was the first phase of an illness that obviously became a lot worse before, I hope and trust, I got through the worst of it.

(Box 40, Correspondence 1972–7, 20 June 1974)

At least he had leave from his LSE terms in 1972–3 to look forward to. He had been teaching year-round since 1966 and been without any leave since 1959–60, his first year at Chicago. He spent his leave at Yale as Irving Fisher Professor with no formal teaching duties but with an obligation of residence in New Haven. He did teach an undergraduate course in the theory of international monetary economics, which did not go well in its lecture format and became a seminar (Box 37, Yale Course 1972). He also grew a beard. He had colleagues, but New Haven was not Hyde Park or LSE and he was thrown more on his own resources and company.