Anyone interested in studying "creative communities" of economists  
would be well-served to read the volume _Economists in Cambridge: A  
study through their correspondence, 1907-1946_, edited by Cristina  
Marcuzzo and Annalisa Rosselli.

Regardless of your perspective on how to properly define or analyze a  
"creative community", this collection is an invaluable resource. The  
essays in the collection analyse over 2,800 letters written between  
ten leading economist who were either at Cambridge (Pigou, Keynes,  
Kahn, Joan Robinson, Robertson, Sraffa, Kaldor) or who were important  
in shaping economics there (Harrod and Hayek) between 1921 and 1946.  
The authors examined every known extant letter between these ten  
people and so provide information of a type that would be rare for any  
scholarly community.

Brad Bateman