This first part includes four papers providing an overview of the life and work of Janos Kornai. The first paper, ‘In Janos Kornai’s memory’ (2022) was published in response to an invitation by Public Choice journal following Kornai’s passing on October 18, 2021. The paper succinctly describes Kornai’s biography including his birth into a well-to-do cultivated Jewish family on January 21, 1928, in Hungary. It highlights his unique personal qualities and his specific intellectual trajectory. I also suggest a periodisation of his works from his PhD thesis in 1956 to his final publications. This section begins with a narrative that is part biographical and part intellectual allowing the reader to become familiar with Kornai as an individual and as an eminent scholar.