Arthur Seldon: Great Editor, Thinker And Radical Economist

Arthur Seldon, the founder editor of Economic Affairs and first Editorial Director of the IEA, died in October 2005, a few weeks before the 25th anniversary issue went to press. Many tributes have been paid to Arthur Seldon in obituaries in The Economist and the major national newspapers. In this special section of Economic Affairs we reproduce four of the speeches given at his memorial service on 15 January 2006. Respectively, they illustrate the fond affection for Arthur Seldon felt by Ralph Harris, the founder General Director of the IEA; Stuart Waterhouse, a fellow LSE student; Martin Anderson, who worked with Arthur Seldon editing Economic Affairs; and Geoffrey Howe, former Chancellor of the Exchequer. Three members of Arthur Seldon's family also spoke at the memorial service. Their talks concentrated on Arthur Seldon's family life, but the following more general thoughts particularly resonated with all present. His adopted son, Michael Perrott, commented that he was ‘a lion amongst thinkers, timeless and uncompromising’. Peter Seldon spoke of his father as ‘a visionary’ and ‘a genius’; he concluded, ‘we are all unique but the word could have been invented for Arthur’. Peter's brother Anthony Seldon commented that ‘he [Arthur] lives on in all of us’. – Philip Booth