"ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS… AN INTELLECTUAL GIANT": FIRST EDITION OF THEORY OF ECONOMIC GROWTH BY SIR ARTHUR LEWIS, THE FIRST BLACK ECONOMIST TO WIN THE NOBEL PRIZE

LEWS, W. Arthur. The Theory of Economic Growth. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1955. Octavo, original russet cloth, original dust jacket. $2000.

First edition of Sir Arthur Lewis' 1955 groundbreaking work that confirmed his position as "a leading authority on economic growth and political and social change in emerging nations," the first Black economist awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, won jointly in 1979 with Theodore Schultz, in very scarce original dust jacket.

Sir Arthur Lewis, born in St. Lucia, was a graduate of the London School of Economics and a Lecturer in Economics at the School during WWII. He also taught at Cambridge and Manchester University before his appointment as Vice Chancellor of the University College of the West Indies in Jamaica, followed by two decades at Princeton, where he was "a professor of economics and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School and in the Dept. of Economics and later was appointed the James Madison Professor of Political Economy." In 2018 Princeton named its "prominent lecture hall in the Woodrow Wilson School" after Lewis, its "first Black full professor." Heralded as "one of the founders of development economics… an intellectual giant who contributed greatly to the world," Lewis also authored many key works in economics, was the "first president of the Caribbean Development Bank and the first economic adviser to the government of Ghana" (Binder, Legacy of Nobel Laureate Sir W. Arthur Lewis).

The first Black economist to win a Nobel Prize in Economics, awarded jointly with Theodore Schultz in 1979, Lewis ranks as "a leading authority on economic growth and political and social change in emerging nations… in 1954, he published what many economists considered one of the first academic works in this area, Theory of Economic Growth" (New York Times). Its innovative approach to economic forces made him "one of the foremost scholars of his time… his lucid and moderate analysis soon came to dominate much of the western debate on aid and development" (London Times). Theory of Economic Growth is widely "regarded as a masterly demonstration of how to apply economic analysis to the working, and the removal, of the imperfections of the real world" (Seldon, Sir Arthur Lewis). At the Award Ceremony, Lewis was especially noted for his "pioneering work… in economic development" and his "explanatory models which with the simplicity of genius mark out the causes of poverty among the population of the developing countries as well as the factors determining the unsatisfactory pace of development" (Nobel Prize in Economics). As a Nobel laureate in Economics, Lewis also stands with Black leaders who won the Nobel Prize for Peace: African Americans Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964) and Ralph Bunche (1950), and South Africans Albert Luthuli (1960) and Desmond Tutu (1984). First edition, first printing: with no statement of edition or printing on the copyright page; dust jacket front flap with price, "30s.net."

Text very fresh, only tiny chip to preliminary blank, cloth fine, mild spine toning to bright near-fine dust jacket.