Many people would be aware of the long journey over many decades that Piero Sraffa spent labouring over his masterwork The Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, a neo-Ricardian refutation of neoclassical economics. Many also would be aware of his socialists leanings, and friendship with Italian comunist leader and intellectual Antonio Gramsci.
But how many people realise it was Sraffa himself who provided Gramsci, imprisoned by the fascists, with the pens and paper with which he would write his famous Quaderni dal Carcere (Prison Notebooks)? Or that, according to his Wikipedia entry:
He became rich after a long-term investment on Japanese government bonds, made the day after the nuclear bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; a popular story tells that he'd received a huge amount of money which for more than a decade he'd refused to invest, waiting for a "safe" opportunity. He correctly reasoned that Japan wouldn't remain a poor country for long.
If anyone knows of similar unusual facts about leading economists, please email them to me.
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