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One direct borrowing I believe from Knight's The economic organization was Roger Weiss'
book which as I recall was titled The Economic System.
 
Like Knight's book, Weiss' book was written I believe for the lower level undergrad social
science courses in the College at U. of Chicago. As I recall, Weiss says in his preface
something to the effect that anyone reading his book will see that his debt to Knight's
The Economic Organization is large. My own recollection of perusing  the two books
suggested that  Weiss was not being unfair to himself with this comment. Weiss taught in
the College in the 1960's, 1970's and perhaps into the 1980's.
 
I do have  copy of the 1951 edition with dust jacket. As Ross is probably aware, the 1951
edition on the copyright page actually lists the copyright dates as 1933 and 1951 with
Frank Knight holding the copyright for both dates. The back of the dust jacket just lists
a number of other A.M. Kelley titles. The back inside fold of the dust jacket just lists a
Kelley reprint of the second edition of Malthus' Principles of Political Economy. The
front inside fold of the dust jacket gives the Hayek quote that Ross mentions and nothing
else.
 
The Hayek quote in full is: "There can be few contemporary works on economics which,
without ever having been regularly published, have achieved such wide circulation and fame
as Frank H. Knight's The Economic Organization. For nearly a generation the various typed
and mimeographed editions have been extensively used and drawn up. It is really to be
welcomed that this influential essay is now at last made available in permanent form."
 
Incidentally, when I was an undergraduate at Chicago, I was assigned a paperback edition
of the Economic Organization; as I recall it was a Harper Torchbook edition (you might try
looking at the National Union Catalogue to look for library holdings of subsequent
reprints of this book after 1951). I think I still have it somewhere, but can't
immediately find it. I am not sure if this would have any additional comments either on
the back or in a preface regarding the book. I took the course in question  in the fall
quarter of 1970, so apparently the book was available in paperback edition then. The
course was NOT an economics or social science course but that is probably another story.
 
Since my understanding was that Knight wrote this book for use in the undergraduate
college at Chicago, looking more at curriculum materials for the College from the 1930's
on might reveal more about the genesis of the book and its immediate use in College the
curriculum. But Ross may well have already explored this line of approach.
 
David Mitch 
 
 
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