HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

To the Editors of the Crimson:

In the Crimson of February 26, 1972, you quote Professor Louis L. Jaffe as saying that "the publication policy of the Press has been law, and a number of trivial books have been published that have contributed little to scholarly research."

I cannot believe that you have quoted correctly my esteemed colleague, Professor Jaffe. In any event, as a fellow member with Professor Jaffe of the Press's Board of Syndics, it may not be amiss for me to record my opinion that the Harvard University Press has by any standard a most distinguished publication list. To be aware of this, it suffices to observe that in economics, a field with which I am especially concerned, the press has published through the years some of the most important landmarks of our time, such as Samuelson's Foundations., Chamberlain's Monopolistic Competition, Haberler's Prosperity and Depression, and so on.

Of course, not every Press book has by any means been a best seller, but the number of duds in a scholarly sense has been. I feel, amazingly small. Judgment of the Press's list is properly left to others not connected with Harvard, but I for one would be surprised if there is a single university press in the country that would not gladly exchange its list for Harvard's. Abram Bergson   Baker Professor of Economics