GUEST BOOK REVIEW: '100 Voices'
An Oral History of Ayn Rand
Reviewed By Shelly Reuben
As I was reading the interviews in "100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand" (NAL Trade paperback, 656 pages, $20.00) lyrics from the Comden and Green song, “Just in time. I found you just in time” kept running through my head.
Oral historian Scott McConnell contacted movie stars, producers, writers, philosophers, brigadier generals, artists, photographers, and others whose lives touched that of author Ayn Rand. Knowing that some of these best and brightest are no longer with us (Mickey Spillane, Robert Stack, Patricia Neal, Julius Shulman, and Louis Rukeyser, to name a few) it becomes woefully evident that McConnell did, indeed, speak to many of them…just in time.
Fortunately, both for our sense of continuity and my own pleasure in seeing the sun come up every morning, some of the people you will meet in 100 Voices (myself included) are still above ground. And so, you will learn fascinating things about Ayn Rand from such vibrant souls as Raquel Welch, movie star; Albert S. Ruddy, Academy Award winning producer; Mike Wallace, TV journalist; Alvin Toffler, author; and Malcolm Fraser, former prime minister of Australia.
As the subject of this book, Ayn Rand is no less provocative than a drill sergeant at a peace rally. She has been vilified as a monster, and called everything from a fascist to a Nazi – usually by people who have not read her books. Equally, she has been celebrated and adored: She was invited to the White House to meet Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, who called her “one of the most important writers of the last hundred years.” She was invited by NASA to attend the launch of Apollo 11. She was invited to the US Military Academy at West Point to speak on philosophy to cadets. And in 1999, she was honored by the U.S. Postal Services in their Literary Arts stamp series with a first class stamp.
People loved Ayn Rand. They hated Ayn Rand. They loved and hated her at the same time. And Scott McConnell interviewed them all. He asked enough probing questions to satisfy a gossipmonger or a historian, and he gives us robust and disconcerting glimpses into the life of a woman who was either privileged or doomed (depending on how you view it) to live with her own greatness.
"100 Voices" is arranged chronologically. Those who knew her longest are introduced first. The book begins with her sister, Eleanora Drobysheva, who disappeared behind the Iron Curtain for forty-seven years before reconnecting with Ayn Rand in 1973. Ecstatic about the prospect of a reunion, Miss Rand offered to help her sister and husband relocate to the United States. Philosophic differences – Eleanora preferred to live under communism and Rand was a passionate capitalist – led to an acrimonious schism, and Eleanora’s resentment of her famous sister (Ah. Family!) resulted in some of the nastiest quotes in the book.
After Eleanora returns to the USSR, we are led on a guided tour of Ayn Rand’s life, from eager Russian immigrant, to Hollywood screenwriter, to best selling author and literary icon.
Patrick O’Connor, her editor at New American Library and a self-described Trotskyite, offers insights into her relationship with her publishers. “I thought that they hated her…They were all left-wing Democrats…not one of them had read her books, and they had been living off her all the years. I was horrified.”
Colonel Herman Ivey, who invited Miss Rand to lecture at West Point, says, “I loved her as a person…It was like she was tossing and goring these sacred cows left and right, and I liked this. And young people liked this, and it’s good for us, and it frightens the established academic intellectuals.”
Albert S. Ruddy, producer of "The Godfather" and "Million Dollar Baby", negotiated with Miss Rand to make a movie of "Atlas Shrugged" and relates his comment and her response at their first meeting: “’Ayn, you’ve written one of the great thrillers, one of the great love stories – the greatest part for a woman I have read in contemporary literature.’ She said, ‘Exactly, darling. That’s exactly the way I see it. That’s all I ever wanted it to be’.”
Raquel Welch, whom Miss Rand envisioned as Dagny Taggart, says, “I liked her immediately…She seemed to have a sense of humor, a twinkle and a vitality.” Responding to the question if Miss Rand’s books had influenced her, Welch replies, “They encouraged me a lot to continue being strong-minded and courageous…I always thought that women should be extraordinary and magnificent.”
Duane Eddy, Grammy Award-winning guitarist and member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tells us: “I’m a great admirer of Howard Roark blowing up Courtland Homes, and would love to do that to some of the records I’ve made that have been re-released and ruined in the process…Everything about Atlas Shrugged interested me. It clarified life. The Entire book stunned me…I think she’s the most coherent, most logical, most far-reaching thinker that I have ever been able to discover. I had my own little title for what I considered the adventure of meeting her and spending time with her: I called it my “real miracle on 34th Street’.”
My favorite interviewee was Mickey Spillane. His grit, his masculinity, his disregard of detractors’ opinions, and his loyalty to Ayn Rand explode off the page: “We talked about everything under the sun. We talked about people and how we developed stories…There was a lot of laughing together…We used to talk about editorial stupidity…We like heroes. We don’t like the nomads of the world…I never pay any attention to critics. They got their books for free, so shut up…The more they say, ‘Don’t read the books of Ayn Rand or Mickey Spillane,’ the more we sold…she had John Galt. I had Mike Hammer…We were friends. That’s the biggest thing I can say.”
For those who are curious about Ayn Rand’s relationships with her colleagues in the wardrobe department at RKO, her editors, her lawyers, her doctors, and (my least favorite sections) her fans, this is a must-read book. For those who are intrigued by her gentle and elegant husband, Frank O’Connor (my favorite sections), this is a must-read book. For those who are interested in the toll that new ideas can take on their creator, this is a must-read book.
And for those who want to see a different side of the woman whose books have sold over 25 million copies, listen up. Michael Jaffe, Hollywood producer who negotiated with Ayn Rand to develop Atlas Shrugged into a miniseries, ends his interview with the kind of insights that abound in this compelling oral history:
“Everybody knows the books, the ideas, the controversy. I don’t know her that way. I know her as the person who worked really hard with me over a long period of time.
“…she was a hell of a gal.”
Copyright © 2010, Shelly Reuben. Originally published in The Evening Sun, Norwich, NY - evesun.com Shelly Reuben has been nominated for Edgar, Prometheus, and Falcon awards. For more about her books, visit www.shellyreuben.com. Link to David M. Kinchen's reviews of her novels "The Skirt Man" and "Tabula Rasa": http://www.huntingtonnews.net/columns/060605-kinchen-review.html