Product Description

Ayn Rand's letters were written to be read. This witty and penetrating collection of her correspondence with Hollywood luminaries, political writers, philosophers, family members, artists, businessmen, and fans offers an unparalleled look at the past 50 years of her life and career.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #839138 in Books
• Published on: 1995-06-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 720 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Novelist, screenwriter, philosopher and staunch advocate of laissez-faire capitalism, Ayn Rand (1905-1982) saw communism, Nazism and fascism as kindred evils sprung from the same collectivist mentality. Her atheist philosophy, which she called objectivism and which was reflected in her bestselling novels?The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged?extolled individualism, voluntary cooperation and conscious choice while condemning altruism (living for others) and self-sacrifice as moral fallacies. These themes resound in her outspoken, sometimes strident correspondence, which includes letters to Senator Barry Goldwater, Frank Lloyd Wright, H.L. Mencken, Dashiell Hammett, Cecil B. DeMille and actors Robert Stack and Barbara Stanwyck. Sprinkled with critiques of liberals, leftists and others whom she saw as corrupted by collectivist thinking, the voluminous correspondence reflects Rand's desperate concern for her parents and sisters, trapped under Stalinism in her native Russia (which she left for Hollywood in 1926), and includes her analyses of her novels' plots as well as pessimistic cultural commentary on an America she considered to be in decline. Berliner is executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Novelist-philosopher Rand--the advocate nonpareil of rationalism; of unfettered, unregulated capitalism; of individual rights and responsibilities--wrote her letters as carefully as her books because, she said, of the necessity of guarding her words when writing to relatives in the Soviet Union. Her precise missives always said exactly what she meant, and whether writing to fans, friends, business associates, or strangers, Rand was never at a loss for words. One of the unexpected pleasures of this collection is the copious professional advice she gave beginning writers, yet the heart of the letters as much as of her books is, of course, her political and philosophical views. Imbued with her fiercely held beliefs, the letters most devoted to politics and philosophy fairly blaze off the page. Rand always held to and fluently and lucidly explained the distinction between her philosophy, objectivism, and the various phases of twentieth-century American conservatism. Regardless of one's opinion of her thinking, her letters add greatly to our understanding of a most exceptional woman of letters. Dennis Winters

Customer Reviews

The Other Side of Ayn Rand
This collection of Ayn Rand's letters is an interesting and important addition to her works. It was edited by Michael Berliner, then-executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. (ARI advocates the "Official Objectivism" of Leonard Peikoff.) For those who know Rand through her at times shrill writing and the self-serving accounts of former insiders, this collection presents a valuable "other side" to Rand. Written over a period of 55 years, we read love letters to her husband, letters to friends and fans, and letters to politicians. In fact, Rand corresponded with some of the most famous people of the century, such as Alexander Kerensky, H. L. Mencken, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Barry Goldwater, to name a few. The philosophical portions of the letters are quite meaty, and Rand obviously put a great deal of effort into her correspondence.

Not surprisingly, the only letters to Nathaniel Branden included were written before he became her associate. The end result is that Branden's contributions to Objectivism are downplayed, which is typical of the material produced by the ARI. (For example, even though Rand approved of Branden's writings published prior to their split, they do not appear in THE AYN RAND LEXICON or other post-split collections.)

The most interesting selections are the letters to Isabel Paterson and the distinguished philosopher John Hospers. In order to get permission to quote Hospers' comments contained in Rand's letters, the editor was obliged to include a statement from Hospers. As Hospers says, Rand occasionally misrepresented or misunderstood his point, so printing only Rand's letters to Hospers makes him "look like a bloody fool. . . . And that isn't quite fair, is it?"

Revealing, and EXACTLY in the way her admirers think
I found this book tremendously inspiring, as inspiring as a great biography--because in a sense that is what it is. Ones sees that despite the negatives, Ayn Rand took joy in the great crusade of ideas that constituted her life. Through these letters the reader feels like he is participating in this drama.

The most interesting aspect is, in the Introduction's words, the "series of painful shocks" by which she came to realize the philosophical and moral bankruptcy of "the pitiful compromisers and anti-intellectual temporizers" known as conservatives. A few of them have posted reviews below. As comes out in those postings, conservatives want to "conserve" not only capitalism, but also the moral-philosophical status quo. This is evident in the logical structure of the arguments presented. An "actual" philosopher is presumed by them to be any representative of that Establishment, whereas a young person striving to come to an independent grasp of reality has got to be an unwitting victim. A novelist who solves an ancient problem (the is-ought gap) in the course of composing a character's climactic speech ("Well, I never! A speech in a novel! Who ever heard of such a thing?") is only starting to engage in "efforts" in philosophy when she refers to and cites that speech in the manner of a proper academic who is publishing before he perishes.

One hears the familiar drone of the conservative in another reviewer's condemnation of Rand's morality of rational self-interest as "justification for behaving in a[n] anti-social manner that is slowly destroying the fabric of the societies of the Western World."

One often hears it said about Objectivists (those who espouse Ayn Rand's philosophy) that "No disagreement with her writings is ever accepted and if you disagree you are an evil communist/collectivist." It is true that many of her admirers, notably among the young (who are especially fiery when it comes to ideals), act that way. But these LETTERS show that that was not Ayn Rand's own attitude when she believed the person was intellectually honest--witness her correspondence with, among many others, John Hospers.

A fascinating chronicle of the soul behind Atlas Shrugged.
As one who knew Ayn Rand quite well at the end of her life, I was still amazed by this book: the unique combination of passionate valuing and ruthless logic that characterized her later years shone throughout her life--but with fascinating variations in form. Through these letters, you follow her life from age 21, when she writes back home to Russia, to Leo (the model for the hero of her first novel), to her long and brilliant philosophic correspondence with Prof. John Hospers after the publication of _Atlas Shrugged_. Also letters to H. L. Mencken, Frank Lloyd Wright, Mickey Spillaine, Barry Goldwater, Cecil B. DeMille, Bennett Cerf, Walt Disney, Alexander Kerensky, Ginger Rogers, Robert Stack, Isabel Paterson, as well as her responses to ordinary fan-letters. An intimate chronicle of the soul from which sprang Howard Roark, Francisco d'Anconia, John Galt and her other unprecedented heroes. Harry Binswanger (hb@interport.net)