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THE EDUCATION OF AYN RAND, 1905–1943
Paterson to be a boon companion. She left Frank behind in New York
and spent the weekend in Connecticut. The two women stayed awake
“the whole fi rst night, ‘til seven in the morning—we saw the sunlight—
talking philosophy and politics. And of course I was delighted with her
for that reason.” 20 Words and thoughts fl owed easiest for Rand in the
midnight hours, which she usually spent alone, buried in thought. That
she so happily spent this time with Paterson, or “Pat” as Rand was now
calling her, testifi ed to the fast bond that grew between the pair. It was
the fi rst of many long talks that came to defi ne their friendship.
Especially in the beginning, these conversations were decidedly onesided.
Paterson spoke and Rand listened. Educated only through high
school, Paterson was nonetheless widely read, and friends recall the
younger Rand literally “sitting at the master’s feet” as Paterson discussed
American history. 21 Paterson was working on a lengthy nonfi ction treatise
that would express her political views and had developed a commanding
grasp of world history and economics that she gladly shared
with Rand. She was an encyclopedia of knowledge. Rand would propose
a topic—the Supreme Court, for example—and Paterson would hold
forth for hours.
Like the other libertarians Rand met during this time, Paterson
drew from an older tradition to make her case for limited government
and individualism. Spencer was one of her favorites, and her column
brimmed with references to his ideas. She was also taken by the concept
of the status society versus the contract society, an idea fi rst set forth
by the British jurist and historian Sir Henry Maine but given legs by
Spencer and later Sumner. 22 According to this theory, Western societies
had evolved from a feudal system, in which relationships between
individuals were determined by their status, to societies in which relationships
were determined by contract. Although Maine was a Burkean
conservative who believed fi rmly in ties of tradition and society, in
American hands his idea of contract quickly became shorthand for
a fl uid, individualistic society that encouraged personal autonomy.
Thinkers like Paterson interpreted Maine’s ideas to mean that the New
Deal betokened a return to the status society, or “rebarbarization.”
Although she profi ted from the work of older and more obscure thinkers,
as a prominent columnist and reviewer Paterson was well versed in
contemporary intellectual debates. Where Rand spoke of “organization,”
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