> Today would be the 103rd birthday of F.O. Matthiessen, the gay left
> literary critic who killed himself in despondency over the death of
> his long-time lover and over the McCarthy-era witch-hunts. His gift
> of several thousand dollars (how much was it exactly, John?) was
> crucial to the founding of Monthly Review.
15000 (1949) dollars. The useful NASA GDP deflator <http://www1.jsc.nasa.gov/bu2/inflateGDP.html> gives that as the equivalent of $96903 today.
john mage