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A ROUND UNIVERSE 149
Always by her side at these occasions, Frank was a silent paramour,
an ornamental and decorative fi gure. As the conversation wore into the
evening, he served up coffee and pastries but contributed little to the
discussion, sometimes dozing silently in his chair. The move to New
York had been profoundly disruptive for Frank. He made a fainthearted
attempt to sell fl owers to decorate building lobbies, printing up cards
that identifi ed him as “Francisco, the lobbyist.” But without his own
land and greenhouse, the business offered little reward and soon collapsed.
Rand turned again to fi ction to sort out Frank’s behavior, telling
the Collective, “He’s on strike.” She continued to value their connection,
always introducing herself to strangers as “Mrs. O’Connor.” When their
schedules diverged as she stayed up late to write, she left him friendly
notes about the apartment, always addressed to “Cubbyhole” and signed
“Fluff.” Rand was elated when he suggested that one of her chapter titles,
“Atlas Shrugged,” serve as the book’s title, and she proudly informed new
visitors that Frank had thought up the book’s name. Such claims did
little to disguise Frank’s failure to emulate the active, dominant heroes
Rand celebrated. The Collective knew, however, that his place by Rand’s
side was never to be questioned. Frank was outside the rankings, of the
Collective but not in it. 41
Although Rand disliked him at fi rst, Alan Greenspan soon became
one of her favorites. For ten months he was married to Joan Mitchell,
Barbara’s closest friend, and through her met Rand a few times. Once
their marriage was amicably annulled, the former couple grew closer as
friends, and Greenspan began joining Rand’s circle on a regular basis.
Even Joan’s subsequent marriage to Allan Blumenthal, Nathan’s cousin,
did little to disturb Greenspan or discourage his interest in Rand’s
group. At early meetings he was quiet and somber, earning the nickname
“the Undertaker” from Rand. Heavily infl uenced by logical positivism,
Greenspan was unwilling to accept any absolutes. He became
legendary for his confession that he might not actually exist—it couldn’t
be proved. Hearing this, Rand pounced: “And by the way, who is making
that statement?” To Greenspan it was a deep exchange that shook his
relativist beliefs to the core.
By many accounts Rand excelled at the kind of verbal combat that
impressed Greenspan. Hiram Haydn, an editor at Bobbs-Merrill and
later Random House, marveled at Rand’s ability to conquer sophisticated
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