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A NEW CREDO OF FREEDOM 75
columnist for the New York Herald Tribune. Rand sent Paterson an invitation
to their meeting and followed up with a brief visit to her offi ce.
They had a cordial conversation, but Paterson explained that it was her
policy not to join any group. Rand was surprised when, a few weeks later,
Paterson found her home phone number and asked if they might meet
again. More than twenty years Rand’s senior, the divorced and childless
Paterson had a formidable reputation. She had published several successful
novels but wielded true infl uence through her weekly column,
“Turns with a Bookworm.” Written in a chatty, conversational style,
Paterson’s column mixed literary gossip with book reviews and ran for
twenty-fi ve years, from 1924 to 1949. 18
Paterson had oddities to rival Rand’s. At parties she sat silently by
herself, refusing to talk to anyone she deemed uninteresting. She was
openly rude. A friend recounted a typical anecdote from a publisher’s
luncheon given for a French author. After Paterson spoke disparagingly
of H. G. Wells,
the Frenchwoman turned most charmingly to Isabel and said, “You see,
my dear Miss Paterson, it has been my great honor, privilege and happiness
to know Mr. Wells most closely, most intimately. We have lived
together, Mr. Wells and I, for seven happy years on the Riviera as man
and wife.” . . . Isabel then raised her lorgnette (being nearsighted as you
know) and carefully looked at the Frenchwoman, from the table level
slowly up and slowly down, and laying down the lorgnette she said, “I still
say, H. G. Wells is a fool.” 19
Abrasive behavior was part of Paterson’s shell and her persona, and it
made her legendary among New York writers. A mention in her column
could send book sales skyrocketing, but to curry favor with Paterson
authors had to risk incurring her wrath. Always a contrarian, by the
time of the Willkie campaign Paterson had become implacably opposed
to Roosevelt. She peppered her columns with political commentary, a
move that cost her readers and, eventually, her column.
Rand and Paterson’s political friendship quickly became personal.
Paterson invited Rand to her country home in Connecticut, an “enormous
jump in the relationship,” Rand remembered. “I was being very
polite and formal, since it’s just a political acquaintance. And she made
it personal in very quick order.” Initially hesitant, Rand soon found
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