Giant Brains or Machines That Think.

First edition of this important work which popularized cognitive images of early computers. Octavo, original cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author in the year of publication on the front free endpaper to the author to his ACM collaborator, Austrian mathematician Franz Alt (who is also thanked in the acknowledgements), "To Franz, with thanks again and warmest greetings, Ed. Nov. 28, 1949." The recipient, Franz Alt was an Austrian Jew who made important contributions to econometrics and to early computers, specializing in their 'applications in science, engineering, management and data processing. He also dealt with information retrieval, automatic language translations, numerical analytical operations research, econometrics, and geometry of metric space' (Museum of the Jewish People). After fleeing the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938 he emigrated to the US and worked in high positions at the Econometric Institute in New York, the Aberdeen Proving Ground's Ballistic Research Laboratories, the Computation Laboratory at the National Bureau of Standards, and the Information Division of the American Institute of Physics. Together with Berkeley he was one of the founders of the Association for Computing Machinery, serving as its president between 1950 and 1952 and as editor of its journal during the 1950s. Alt is first on the list of those thanked in the acknowledgements for, 'careful reviews and helpful comments.' Near fine in a very good dust jacket. An exceptional association linking these two pioneers in the field.