Floyd Arthur “Baldy” Harper was an American educator and economist whose ideas influenced libertarian thought. The F. A. Harper papers, which relate to laissez-faire economics and economic policy in the United States, now have an inventory available online.
Harper was a professor at Cornell University and a charter member of the Mont Pèlerin Society, an international organization of laissez-faire economists. He assisted Leonard Read in founding the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946 and then served on its staff. In 1961, Harper founded an organization of his own, the Institute for Humane Studies (IHS), with a council of advisers that included Friedrich A. von Hayek. In addition to teaching and his work at the IHS, Harper was a prolific author, penning such works as Liberty: A Path to Its Recovery and Why Wages Rise.
The collection includes Harper's correspondence with economists and other notable figures, many of whom were members of the Mont Pèlerin Society and/or the Institute of Economic Affairs. Harper's correspondents, many of whose papers are available for research at the Hoover Archives, include Maurice Allais, Dennis L. Bark, William F. Buckley Jr., Ludwig Erhard, Bonner Fellers, Antony G. Fisher, Barry Goldwater, Pierre Goodrich, Otto von Habsburg, Allan Hoover, Albert Hunold, John Jewkes, Bertrand de Jouvenel, Arthur Kemp, Ludwig von Mises, Karl Popper, Stefan Possony, Ronald Reagan, Benjamin A. Rogge, Murray Rothbard, Jacques Rueff, Olin Glenn Saxon, B. R. Shenoy, Jacques Van Offelen, and John V. Van Sickle.
