I’ve written the introductions to Laissez Faire Books’ new e-book editions of Ayn Rand’s Anthem and Jerome Tuccille’s It Usually Begins With Ayn Rand.
The Anthem intro is online here, and the Tuccille intro should be available soon.
I’m sure someone somewhere, upon reading them, will ask why the Rand-lover who wrote the Anthem intro and the Rand-hater who wrote the Tuccille intro have the same name!
In related news, I’d assumed my monograph Reason and Value: Aristotle versus Rand was out of print (Amazon offers it for the un-tempting price of $200), but apparently the book is still being published by, and is available “upon inquiry” from, the Atlas Society at some almost reasonable price, although they do not advertise it in any way, either on their website or via Amazon; moreover, the book is also available as a free pdf on their website (here – in a somewhat cleaner copy than the ones currently floating around the internet), though again it’s not exactly announced with bugle and drum, and you’ll only come across it if you’re hunting for it.
The same applies to Neera Badhwar’s similarly themed Is Virtue Only a Means to Happiness?, likewise available in the same hidden easter-egg way (here).
The Atlas Society does it this way because … um … okay, this is a case where Verstehen hits a brick wall. But anyway, they’re available!
The other one’s up.
I think I may have read a borrowed copy of “It Usually Begins” BEFORE reading “Atlas Shrugged.” I’m probably one of the rare libertarians who 1) came from the far left, about the same time Roderick read “Atlas,” and 2) didn’t read Rand until after I discovered and converted to libertarianism. (Mostly to reconcile my previous altruistic-leftist moral views to allow for unforced morality.) I am grateful that I didn’t read Rand till after the Branden split and was introduced to her through her anarchist admirers who knew where her flaws were and pointed them out for me. And to me, the voice of Objectivism will always be that of Branden’s, from listening to his scratchy “Basic Principles” records. As one talk show host said to Nathaniel, “I’m hearing you say the same things that Ayn said when she was here, but when she would talk my teeth would be on edge!”