ABSTRACT
When Alfred Marshall died on 13 July 1924, Maynard Keynes was asked by his co-editor on the Economic Journal, Edgeworth, to write his official obituary, much to the pleasure of Marshall’s widow. ‘I am indeed glad that Maynard is writing it, for he will do it beautifully and Alfred was proud to count him among his pupils’ (from a letter to Florence Keynes, cited in Harrod 1951: 354). On 30 August 1924, Edgeworth was busily correcting the galley proofs and making suggestions to Maynard Keynes about alterations. During September the article was finalised for publication in the issue of the Economic Journal immediately after Marshall’s death, that for September. Edgeworth informed Harrod at the time that the September issue as a result was ‘somewhat delayed’, a delay amply justified by the quality of the piece (Harrod 1951: 354, n1). The extent of the delay is not easy to ascertain. However, it can be imperfectly estimated from the fact that Keynes did not receive a copy of the Memoir (as he referred to the piece) until the morning of 13 October 1924, promising his fiancée, Lydia Lopokova, to send her a copy immediately (Hill and Keynes 1989: 235). Whether this was a reference to copies of the Economic Journal’s September issue itself or to offprints from his article, is not clear. However, Keynes’ exasperated, ‘At last, this morning, the Marshall Memoir came’ in the letter, suggests the former. The accompanying bibliography of Marshall’s published writings was held over until the December issue, presumably for reasons of space.2
