Recent and Forthcoming Books about Ayn Rand

[Chris Grieb]

Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has a release date of April 28th. The editor is Robert Meyhew who has prepared similar collections on Ayn Rand's other novels. This will be from ARI but the earlier books have been interesting.

Objectively Speaking has already been published. The editor is Marlene Podritske who I have not heard of before. Peter Schwartz is also listed as an editor. It is a collection of interviews with Ayn Rand.

Finally Ayn Rand and the World She Made will be published on Nov. 3rd of this year. This book is by Anne Heller. Ms. Heller spoke at the Atlas 50th event and has spoken at one Atlas Society Summer Seminar. The book has been delayed from a spring release date to assure greater sales during the Christmas shopping season. It looks that the publisher is thinking it will be a good seller. The Amazon info and reported comments from MS Heller suggest this.

Edited February 24, 2009 by Chris Grieb

[BaalChatzaf]

Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has a release date of April 28th. The editor is Robert Meyhew who has prepared similar collections on Ayn Rand's other novels. This will be from ARI but the earlier books have been interesting.

Objectively Speaking has already been published. The editor is Marlene Podritske who I have not heard of before. Peter Schwartz is also listed as an editor. It is a collection of interviews with Ayn Rand.

Finally Ayn Rand and the World She Made will be published on Nov. 3rd of this year. This book is by Anne Heller. Ms. Heller spoke at the Atlas 50th event and has spoken at one Atlas Society Summer Seminar. The book has been delayed from a spring release date to assure greater sales during the Christmas shopping season. It looks that the publisher is thinking it will be a good seller. The Amazon info and reported comments from MS Heller suggest this.

I regard Ayn Rand and the world she made as alternate time line fiction. In the Rand 'verse the U.S. does not have a single significant foreign enemy. This has not been true since 1933 well before Atlas Shrugged was published. Ayn Rand, never in her fiction, considered the potential war threats against the U.S.

Just another observation in passing. In the Rand 'verse the Second Law of Thermodynamics does not quite hold (John Galt's magic static electricity machine violates thermodynamics or at least stretches thermodynamics to the breaking point). Apparently the idea of a dying cosmos (as in heat death) is an example of the malevolent universe notion. Face it guys, this cosmos is doomed in the long run and our sun (and therefore us) is doomed in the medium run.

Ba'al Chatzaf

Edited February 24, 2009 by BaalChatzaf

[Chris Grieb]

Baal; You must really have to work very hard to be so cheerful.

I think from comments Ann Heller has made the book is the world which Ayn Rand created with readers of her books. A host of people wanted to live in the world Ayn Rand created in her novels. The book is going to deal with people who were effected negatively and positively.

[BaalChatzaf]

Baal; You must really have to work very hard to be so cheerful.

I think from comments Ann Heller has made the book is the world which Ayn Rand created with readers of her books. A host of people wanted to live in the world Ayn Rand created in her novels. The book is going to deal with people who were effected negatively and positively.

Who wants to live forever? I sure don't.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Brant Gaede]

Baal; You must really have to work very hard to be so cheerful.

I think from comments Ann Heller has made the book is the world which Ayn Rand created with readers of her books. A host of people wanted to live in the world Ayn Rand created in her novels. The book is going to deal with people who were effected negatively and positively.

Who wants to live forever? I sure don't.

Sorry, but since you are a vampire I don't believe you.

--Brant

not a vampire

(I hope I haven't confused you with another regular here.)

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Wait until discussion forums start having mirrors. Then we'll see who is who...

Michael

[BaalChatzaf]

Baal; You must really have to work very hard to be so cheerful.

I think from comments Ann Heller has made the book is the world which Ayn Rand created with readers of her books. A host of people wanted to live in the world Ayn Rand created in her novels. The book is going to deal with people who were effected negatively and positively.

Who wants to live forever? I sure don't.

Sorry, but since you are a vampire I don't believe you.

--Brant

not a vampire

(I hope I haven't confused you with another regular here.)

No such thing as a Jewish Vampire. It is highly non-Kosher to drink blood. That is a no-no.

If there are any Jewish Vampires they attack grapes, apples and mangoes. Listen to them, fruits of the night!

Ba'al Chatzaf

[galtgulch]

Baal; You must really have to work very hard to be so cheerful.

I think from comments Ann Heller has made the book is the world which Ayn Rand created with readers of her books. A host of people wanted to live in the world Ayn Rand created in her novels. The book is going to deal with people who were effected negatively and positively.

Who wants to live forever? I sure don't.

Sorry, but since you are a vampire I don't believe you.

--Brant

not a vampire

(I hope I haven't confused you with another regular here.)

No such thing as a Jewish Vampire. It is highly non-Kosher to drink blood. That is a no-no.

If there are any Jewish Vampires they attack grapes, apples and mangoes. Listen to them, fruits of the night!

Ba'al Chatzaf

Ba'al

I understand that the sun has enough fuel to last another ten billion years before it expands and becomes a red giant star which engulfs the entire solar system. I should think that long before then, assuming our culture, or civilization if you prefer to call it that, will advance with the technology to enable human beings to travel to other solar systems around younger stars which will extend their lifespans another ten billion or more years. In time perhaps they will have to escape from our galaxy to a younger galaxy altogether!

The greatest challenge will occur if the universe does begin to contract with all the galaxies hurtling toward one point. Perhaps those living in those days will concede and just trust that there will be a new cycle after the big collision becomes the next big bang and that there will arise another DNA molecule in the distant future on another planet billions of years later.

I anticipate that you will say that the universe is not a perpetual motion machine as that would violate another physical law or law of thermodynamics having to do with increased entropy or the like.

I am more worried at the moment about our immediate future here where Obama seems to be funding ACORN to be his storm troopers in a new fascist dictatorship of the totalitarian variety.

www.campaignforliberty.com 24 Feb 5PM 104676, 11PM 104683

gulch

Edited February 25, 2009 by galtgulch

[BaalChatzaf]

The greatest challenge will occur if the universe does begin to contract with all the galaxies hurtling toward one point. Perhaps those living in those days will concede and just trust that there will be a new cycle after the big collision becomes the next big bang and that there will arise another DNA molecule in the distant future on another planet billions of years later.

I anticipate that you will say that the universe is not a perpetual motion machine as that would violate another physical law or law of thermodynamics having to do with increased entropy or the like.

gulch

The data gathered in the last ten years or so indicates that the cosmos is expanding at an accelerating rate. Do not look for a Big Crunch. Look for the Big Rip.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Neil Parille]

Anne Heller's bio was due in April, then October and now November. Hopefully it will be out by the end of the year.

It's very exciting when you think about it -- an "independent" look on Rand.

-Neil Parille

[SherryTX]

Are we limiting this specifically to books about Ayn Rand's fiction?

If not there are a few other books:

Ayn Rand For Beginners by Andrew Bernstein and Owen Brozman (Paperback - Jul 14, 2009)

Objectivism in One Lesson: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Andrew Bernstein - this book is already out - I just ordered my copy yesterday, as a few of my friends enjoyed it.

Thank you for the update on the other books. I am way behind on my reading in many subjects, but will add them on my long term reading list. (At this point I will have enough books I plan on reading through the next two years haha!)

[Alfonso Jones]

Essays on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has a release date of April 28th. The editor is Robert Meyhew who has prepared similar collections on Ayn Rand's other novels. This will be from ARI but the earlier books have been interesting.

Objectively Speaking has already been published. The editor is Marlene Podritske who I have not heard of before. Peter Schwartz is also listed as an editor. It is a collection of interviews with Ayn Rand.

Finally Ayn Rand and the World She Made will be published on Nov. 3rd of this year. This book is by Anne Heller. Ms. Heller spoke at the Atlas 50th event and has spoken at one Atlas Society Summer Seminar. The book has been delayed from a spring release date to assure greater sales during the Christmas shopping season. It looks that the publisher is thinking it will be a good seller. The Amazon info and reported comments from MS Heller suggest this.

Regarding the book "Objectively Speaking." This is a collection of Rand interviews. I have a bone to pick with the editors: Part 2 is a collection of interviews "On Campus: Ayn Rand Talks with Future Intellectuals (1962-1966)." And you will not find any more specific dates. Surely the dates of the interviews are known. But . . . not to be found in this book.

And that is a total of 19 interviews spaced over more than 140 pages...

Bill P

Edited February 25, 2009 by Bill P

[Chris Grieb]

Sherry; I meant to include both books you mentioned but don't.

Bill P, I am hoping to look at Objectively Speaking before I buy it but in the info I have seen says they have these radio programs that Miss Rand did from Columbia included. It sounds like ARI has taken material from their archives and recycled it. I think ARI has done that before.

Neil; The original date that Anne Heller stated was the Spring of this year. Anne Heller is saying that the publisher want to reach a bigger market closer to the Christmas. I will be the first to admit that I am no expert on the publisher industry but the change to a better buying season sounds like good marketing.

I would like to add that being no expert does not keep people from posting on OL.

Edited February 25, 2009 by Chris Grieb

[Neil Parille]

Folks,

Amazon says that the following will be out by Oxford on November 1, 2009:

Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right (Hardcover) by Jennifer Burns.

Don't know anything about the book or the author.

-Neil Parille

[merjet]

Jennifer Burns

Abstract of “Godless Capitalism: Ayn Rand and the Conservative Movement”

The ARI says she had access to the Ayn Rand Archives.

Edited February 26, 2009 by Merlin Jetton

[Neil Parille]

Merlin,

This is interesting. I wonder if the Archives gave her access for her book, or just the 2004 article. It doesn't appear that Anne Heller had access, based on what I've heard.

-NEIL PARILLE

[Neil Parille]

Of the 13 projects listed, only 1 appears to have been the product of a non-ARI scholar (Burns). I don't know about the LA Public Library or the St. Peterburg exhibits, but I doubt either were other than the typical public exhibit.

Gotthelf, Salmieri and Milgram are ARI-associated.

_____________________

Authorized biography of Ayn Rand by Shoshana Milgram (in preparation)

Allan Gotthelf and Greg Salmieri, eds., Ayn Rand: A Companion to Her Works and Thought (Blackwell, forthcoming).

Robert Mayhew, ed. Essays on Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead” (Lexington Books, 2006).

Exhibit titled “Ayn Rand in Hollywood” at the Los Angeles Public Library (2006)

Exhibit on Ayn Rand’s life and works at the Nabokov Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia (2005)

Jennifer Burns, “Godless Capitalism: Ayn Rand and the Conservative Movement,” in Modern Intellectual History, 1, 3 (November 2004).

Robert Mayhew, Ayn Rand and “Song of Russia”: Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005).

Jeff Britting, Ayn Rand (Overlook Press, 2004). An illustrated biography.

Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (AG Media Corp., 1997). Academy Award-nominated film for Best Documentary.

David Harriman, ed. Journals of Ayn Rand (Penguin. 1997).

Michael S. Berliner, ed. Letters of Ayn Rand (Penguin 1995).

Afterword by Leonard Peikoff to the 50th anniversary edition of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead (Penguin, 1993).

Foreward by Leonard Peikoff to the 35th anniversary edition of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (Penguin, 1992).

[Chris Grieb]

Anne Heller has said she was refused access to the archives. She told me this at the TAS Summer Seminar at Chapman University in 2006.

[Neil Parille]

Too bad Miss Heller didn't come out with the book in April when it was planned (I seem to recall the first date was February). Would be great timing with the "Going Galt" movement.

-NEIL

[Chris Grieb]

Neil; It has been reported that her publisher moved the date to be closer to the Christmas season when more books sell.

I got Objectively Speaking and while Bill P is correct about not having any dates for the Columbia University the material is still valuable. The two interviews Phil Donahue did with Ayn Rand are not included but I believe you can buy them so I would be curious as to why they weren't included. Those interviews are the biggest loss.

Finally Miss Rand states in 1949 she expects to complete her next novel in the next year(1950), This shows that the Objectivist projection that book will be completed much earlier than they are as been going for longer than we thought.

Edited April 3, 2009 by Chris Grieb

[Neil Parille]

Chris --

And Peikoff must have promised an authorized biography ten years ago. Also, the archives were supposed to have an oral history collection (100 Voices) in 2008.

-NEIL

[Chris Grieb]

Neil; The Milgram book was originally described as a biography of Rand's life up till Atlas was published. I saw nothing about the rest of Rand's life. Then I saw the Milgram referred to as a study of Rand's life.

Your point about the oral histories is a good one. That material is supposed to be completed.

[Neil Parille]

Chris,

Last I heard the Milgram book is an intellectual history of Rand up to 57, with perhaps a second volume later.

I don't know what it is with Objectivists and books. For example the theologian Alister McGrath has written biographies of John Calvin & J.I. Packer and an intellectual history of T.F. Torrance as well as a bunch of other books. The guy is 53. The quality of his work suffers because he writes so much stuff, but one person can be productive.

-NEIL

[Chris Grieb]

The Objectivists say they would rather have the material be good rather than quick and abundant. Leonard has done neither.

[Alfonso Jones]

The Objectivists say they would rather have the material be good rather than quick and abundant. Leonard has done neither.

Rand benefitted greatly from having the periodicals and the schedule for them driving the writing (even though the schedule did run a bit behind).

It appears that Peikoff may end up with The Ominous Parallels, OPAR and the forthcoming (?) DIM book as the virtual total of his output. Not that many essays by him, really.

Bill P