Harry Scherman (February 1, 1887-November 12, 1969) was an American economist. He wrote several works during the second third of the twentieth century.
Maybe his best known book is The Promises Men Live By, published in 1938. In it he develops an analysis of economic problems in terms of people beliefs. His open criticism to accepted policies and then fashionable Keynesianism brought his work to oblivion; something a little ironic, taking into account that he had been one of the co-founders of The Book of the Month Club in 1926.
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Isaac Harry Scherman was born February 1, 1887 in Montreal, Canada. He was the youngest of five children born to Katherine Harris and Jacob Scherman. After his parents separated, Harry and his brothers Louis and William were placed in the Jewish Orphanage Home in Atlanta, Georgia, where they lived from 1893 to 1899. He attended Central High School in Philadelphia, where his classmates included Alexander Woollcott, the future Algonquin Round Table member and radio personality, and Ed Wynn, the famous actor. Scherman graduated high school in 1905, and later completed university studies at the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
His first jobs included working for Louis Lipsky at "The American Hebrew" newspaper, with the Ruthrauff and Ryan advertising firm, and the J. Walter Thompson Company. In 1916 he established the Little Leather Library, and in 1926 the Book of the Month Club.
Scherman married Bernardine Kielty on June 3, 1914. The couple had two children, Katherine Rosin (b. 1915) and Thomas Scherman (b. 1917).
Scherman died November 12, 1969 in Manhattan, New York.
His collected papers were purchased by the University of Georgia's Hargrett Library in 1993.[1]