Leonard Edward Read (September 26, 1898 – May 14, 1983) was the founder of the

Foundation for Economic Education The Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative, Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian economics, economic think tank. Founded in 1946 in New York City, FEE is now headquartere ...

(FEE), one of the first free market think tanks in the United States. He wrote 29 books and numerous essays, including "

I, Pencil "I, Pencil: My Family Tree as Told to Leonard E. Read", commonly known as "I, Pencil", is an essay by Leonard Read and it was first published in the December 1958 issue of ''The Freeman''. Essay "I, Pencil" is written in the first person from the ...

" (1958).

Business career

After a stint in the

United States Army Air Service The United States Army Air Service (USAAS)Craven and Cate Vol. 1, p. 9 (also known as the ''"Air Service"'', ''"U.S. Air Service"'' and before its legislative establishment in 1920, the ''"Air Service, United States Army"'') was the aerial warf ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Read started a grocery wholesale business in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...

, which was initially successful but eventually went out of business. He moved to

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

where he started a new career in the tiny Burlingame

Chamber of Commerce A chamber of commerce, or board of trade, is a form of business network. For example, a local organization of businesses whose goal is to further the interests of businesses. Business owners in towns and cities form these local societies to a ...

near

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Read gradually moved up the hierarchy of the

United States Chamber of Commerce The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is a business association advocacy group and is the largest lobbying group in the United States. The group was founded in April 1912 out of local chambers of commerce at the urging of President Will ...

, finally becoming general manager of the Los Angeles branch, the U.S.'s largest, in 1939.

Libertarian activism

During this period his views became progressively more

libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

. Apparently, it was in 1933, during a meeting with William C. Mullendore, the executive vice president of

Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (SCE), the largest subsidiary of Edison International, is the primary electric utility company for much of Southern California. It provides 15 million people with electricity across a service territory of approximate ...

, that Read was finally convinced that the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...

was completely inefficient and morally bankrupt. Read was also profoundly influenced by his

religious beliefs A belief is a subjective attitude that something is true or a state of affairs is the case. A subjective attitude is a mental state of having some stance, take, or opinion about something. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to ...

. His

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

, Reverend James W. Fifield Jr., was minister of the 4,000-member First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, of which Read was also a board member. Fifield ran a "resistance movement" against the "

social gospel The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean en ...

" of the New Deal, trying to convince ministers across the country to adopt libertarian "spiritual ideals". During the period when he worked for the Chamber of Commerce, Read was also deeply influenced by more secular figures, such as Albert Jay Nock, and later by

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which s ...

and the economists

Ludwig von Mises Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (; ; September 29, 1881 – October 10, 1973) was an Austrian-American political economist and philosopher of the Austrian school. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the social contributions of classical l ...

and

Henry Hazlitt Henry Stuart Hazlitt (; November 28, 1894 – July 9, 1993) was an American journalist, economist, and philosopher known for his advocacy of free markets and classical liberal principles. Over a career spanning more than seven decades, Hazlit ...

. In 1945, Virgil Jordan, the President of the National Industrial Conference Board (NICB) in New York, invited Read to become its executive vice president. Read realized he would have to leave the NICB to pursue full-time the promotion of free market, limited government principles. He resigned as a result. One donor from his short time at NICB, David M. Goodrich, encouraged Read to start his own organization. With Goodrich's aid, as well as financial aid from the William Volker Fund and from

Harold Luhnow Harold W. Luhnow (September 25, 1895 – August 1978) was an American businessman, philanthropist, and political activist. He is most well known for his management of the influential William Volker Fund during the period between 1947 and 1964 in ...

, Read and Hazlitt founded the Foundation for Economic Education in 1946, which, in turn, helped to inspire

Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) was an Austrian-born British academic and philosopher. He is known for his contributions to political economy, political philosophy and intellectual history. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobe ...

to form the

Mont Pelerin Society The Mont Pelerin Society (MPS), founded in 1947, is an international academic society of Economist, economists, Political philosophy, political philosophers, and other Intelligentsia, intellectuals who share a classical liberal outlook. It is hea ...

the following year. For a period in the 1940s, Rand was an important adviser, or "ghost", as they called it, to Read. In 1950, Read joined the board of directors for the newly founded periodical ''

The Freeman ''The Freeman'' (formerly published as ''The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty'' or ''Ideas on Liberty'') was an American libertarian magazine, formerly published by the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). It was founded in 1950 by John Chambe ...

'', a free market magazine that was a forerunner of the conservative ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...

'', to which Read was also a contributor. In 1954, Read arranged for the struggling magazine to be transferred to a for-profit company owned by FEE. In 1956, FEE assumed direct control of the magazine, turning it into a non-profit outreach tool for the foundation. Read received an Honorary Doctoral Degree at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in 1976. He continued to work with FEE until his death in 1983.

Works

Read authored 29 books, some of which are still in print and sold by FEE. * ''Romance of Reality'' (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., Inc., 1937

* ''I'd Push the Button'' (New York: Joseph D. McGuire, 1946

* ''Pattern for Revolt'' (1948

* ''Students of Liberty'' (FEE, 1950

* ''Outlook for Freedom'' (1951

* ''Government – an Ideal Concept'' (FEE, 1954; 2nd edition 1997)

* "I, Pencil" (FEE, 1958 & 2008

* ''Why Not Try Freedom?'' (FEE, 1958

* ''Elements of Libertarian Leadership'' (FEE, 1962

* ''Anything That's Peaceful: The Case for the Free Market'' (FEE, 1964; revised edition 1992; 2nd edition 1998)

* ''The Free Market and Its Enemy'' (FEE, 1965

* ''Deeper Than You Think'' (FEE, 1967

* ''Where Lies This Fault?'' (FEE, 1967

* ''Accent on the Right'' (FEE, 1968

* ''The Coming Aristocracy'' (FEE, 1969

* ''Let Freedom Reign'' (FEE, 1969

* ''Talking To Myself'' (FEE, 1970

* ''Then Truth Will Out'' (FEE, 1971

* ''To Free or Freeze, That is the Question'' (FEE, 1972

* ''Instead of Violence'' (FEE, 1973

* ''Who's Listening'' (FEE, 1973

* ''Free Man's Almanac'' (FEE, 1974) * ''Having My Way'' (FEE, 1974

* ''Castles in the Air'' (FEE, 1975)

* ''The Love of Liberty'' (FEE, 1975) * ''Comes the Dawn'' (FEE, 1976

* ''Awake for Freedom's Sake'' (FEE, 1977

* ''Vision'' (FEE, 1978

* ''Liberty: Legacy of Truth'' (FEE, 1978

* ''The Freedom Freeway'' (FEE, 1979

* ''Seeds of Progress'' (FEE, 1980

* ''Thoughts Rule the World'' (FEE, 1981

* ''How Do We Know'' (FEE, 1981

* ''The Path of Duty'' (FEE, 1982

* ''Clichés of Socialism'' (FEE, various)

Unpublished Work

Read kept private journals from 1949 to 1978, all of which are available in archive form from FEE. * ''Leonard E. Read Journal'' (FEE, various

Notes

References

* * * *

External links

Books by Leonard Read
at the

Mises Institute The Ludwig von Mises Institute for Austrian Economics, or Mises Institute, is a nonprofit think tank headquartered in Auburn, Alabama, that is a center for Austrian economics, right-wing libertarian thought and the paleolibertarian and ana ...

.
Foundation for Economic Education

Honoris Causa Doctaral degrees at University Francisco Marroquín
{{DEFAULTSORT:Read, Leonard 1898 births 1983 deaths Austrian School economists American libertarians American political philosophers American political writers American male essayists 20th-century American essayists People from Hubbardston, Michigan 20th-century American male writers Foundation for Economic Education