The following story is part of Walter Block's Autobiography Archive.

A Short Intellectual Autobiography

When I was very young, about ten, I fell in love with the game of chess, largely through watching the Fischer-Spassky match on television. My interest in intellectual pursuits dates from that time. Plus I had learned to read early, at about the age of three, from my grandmother. I always loved reading, and could always read very quickly. I was always what we today call a nerd, born and raised in New Jersey.

When I was about thirteen, I decided I wanted to read all of the good books in the public library. I started with the Dialogues of Plato, an important early influence on me, though I never agreed with much of what Socrates said. Philosophy was a central interest of mine.

My father was a significant early influence. He had been a Goldwater Republican, but became an increasingly radical libertarian. He brought home some issues of The Freeman, and The Incredible Bread Machine. I learned some simple things from the former, and loved the latter. More generally, his frank anti-government talk was a big influence on me, he had an amazingly ability to coin a memorable phrase or offer an unforgettable perspective.

At the public library I found Ayn Rand, my grandmother also recommended her to me. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal had a big influence on me, so did Atlas Shrugged. Hayek and Rothbard followed shortly thereafter. I was reading much philosophy at the same time, mostly the classics, and a bit later started on history.

When I was thirteen, my father brought me up to FEE. I met Leonard Read, an unforgettable experience, still the most charismatic speaker I have seen. I learned some Austrian economics there.

At the age of fourteen I met Walter Grinder, a friend of my father’s (George Koether) had introduced him to my father and me. Walter was a huge influence on me. From him learned how it was possible to dedicate one’s life to ideas. I will always be greatly in Walter’s debt, I don’t know how things would have gone if I had not met him. To me he was simply someone who knew everything. The people who "knew everything" always impressed me more than did the famous or the Nobel Prize winners.

I had two very good high school friends, Dan Klein and Randall Kroszner, both of whom became interested in market ideas as well. They remain market-oriented economists to this day, and the three of us are in constant touch. Their camaraderie and intellectual challenges and discussions have always been a central influence in my life, most of all in these early days but ongoing as well.

Richard Fink was a key influence. I met him when I was fifteen, through Walter Grinder, he had been a student of Walter’s. Rich taught at Rutgers Newark for a while, and started an Austrian economics program there, along with Joseph Salerno, Walter Block (I recall gobbling up his Defending the Undefendable at a young age), Richard Ebeling, and Donald Lavoie. I learned a great deal from all of these people, plus I attended NYU Austrian seminars regularly. I also had early contact with the Institute for Humane Studies. I remain grateful to how many of the people at these institutions were willing to spend their time with a young kid.

I followed Rich to George Mason University, in 1980 (with Dan Klein as well), and Rich built up the Center for the Study of Market Processes. I learned more from Rich than is possible to say, not just about economics, but also about institution building, strategy, personalities, and many other matters. With Rich and Walter I have never had better teachers, though I never had a formal class from either one of them.

By this point, I had long ago decided that I wanted to dedicate my life to ideas, and to writing. I tried to read as much as I humanly could, in as many different areas as possible. This remains a driving passion of my life. I still regard Walter and Rich as my role models. Dan Klein and Randy Kroszner are still my best friends. So my current life remains very much rooted in this era.

Just about all my books and articles have their intellectual roots in the earlier times, one way or the other. And I am Director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which is the re-named Center for the Study of Market Processes, although it is now much larger. So I am following in Rich’s footsteps very directly.

That is the core outline of my intellectual life. I haven’t mentioned the later events, including my time at Harvard, but it is the early events that are important for understanding what I have been trying to do.

January 28, 2003

Tyler Cowen [send him mail] is Holbert C. Harris Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and author of numerous books and articles. He can be reached at tcowen@gmu.edu.

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