The Portfolio Problem and How to Pay the Forecaster.

[No place or publisher:] , 1956. Information theory The author's file copy, one of two such examples from Shannon's personal collection; an early surviving piece of work from his period of research into information theory as a tool in the stock market in the 1950s. The statement beneath the title reads: "These notes, taken by W. W. Peterson, cover several lectures in the Seminar on Information Theory offered by C. E. Shannon at M.I.T., Spring Term, 1956." The typescript is split into two parts. The first, titled "The Portfolio Problem" (ff. 1-6), applies information theory to gambling, and was "inspired by news reports of betting on whether or not the contestant on the TV program '$64,000 Question' would win". The second, titled "How to Pay the Forecaster" (ff. 7-8), applies information theory to sophisticated weather prediction systems. Quarto (280 x 214 mm), ff. [1], 8. Reproduced typescript, 9 leaves, stapled upper left, typewritten on rectos only. From the personal files of Claude Shannon, unmarked as such, accompanied by a typed letter signed from his literary executor regarding the provenance. Discreet repair to short tear resulting from staple, first leaf lightly spotted and browned at edges, minor edge wear and creasing, a few neat pencil corrections to text (including to ff. 1 and 3). In very good condition. Origins of Cyberspace 889 (provenance: Berkeley bioengineering professor Lawrence Stark); Sloane & Wyner, Claude Elwood Shannon: Collected Papers, no. 106.