ABSTRACT
He frequently used the expression “You see, my dear . . .” in his melodious Russian accent, and then launched into a pyrotechnical commentary on the subject we happened to be talking about. If the discussion touched on Ja pan, he would say, “Last week when I spoke to the prime minis ter in Tokyo . . .” Or if it touched on Europe, he would say, “When I was in Vienna two weeks ago, the finance minister told me that . . .” Wassily Leontief had more firsthand information than anybody else I have ever known. That information was assimilated and classified and interpreted by one of the best brains of this century. After I met Wassily in 1974 to do an inter view for Challenge, the same phrase came to mind over and over again: authentic genius, one of the few.
