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WHO IS JOHN GALT? 1957–1968
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time advocating Christianity. Rand’s ideas threatened to undermine or
redirect the whole conservative venture. Even worse, given her popularity,
there was the signifi cant danger that Rand would be seized on by
liberals as a spokesperson for conservatism. She might then confi rm the
liberal stereotype that conservatism was nothing more than an ideological
cover for the naked class interests of the haves. For all these reasons,
Rand would have to be cast out of the respectable right. More than just
a literary judgment, the National Review article was an exercise in tablet
keeping. The review signifi ed Buckley’s break with the secular libertarian
tradition Rand represented and his efforts to create a new ideological
synthesis that gave religion a paramount role. It was as Nathan had
foreseen: Rand and the conservatives were not on the same side.
Chambers’s review sent shock waves across the right. Rand herself
claimed to have never read it, but her admirers were horrifi ed. The
Collective chafed at the injustice of assigning a former Communist to
review her work and barraged the magazine with a number of incendiary
letters angrily comparing National Review to the Daily Worker. 16
Isabel Paterson resurfaced from her own misanthropic isolation to
chide Buckley for publishing such an “atrocious” review and warned
him that Rand was likely to sue for defamation (she never did). The
letters column of National Review hummed with controversy for weeks
afterward. One high-profi le defender was John Chamberlain, who had
given Rand rare favorable reviews in The Freeman and the Wall Street
Journal. 17 In an “Open Letter to Ayn Rand” Chamberlain praised her
“magnifi cent” exposition of freedom and averred that he would continue
“the lugubrious task of persuading people to read it in spite of
themselves.” Chamberlain thought that much of the outcry against Atlas
Shrugged was based on religion and lamented that Rand had not “chosen
to admit just one vocal and practicing Christian in her Fellowship
of the Competent.” 18
Chamberlain was right to highlight religion as fundamental to the
controversy over Rand, for it was religious conservatives who most disliked
her book. William Mullendore, who had long enjoyed warm relations
with Rand, was repelled by the harshness of Atlas Shrugged. In the
years since Rand had left California, Mullendore had undergone a sort
of religious awakening, and he now found Rand’s work disturbing. After
reading the book he sent a concerned three-page letter to his children,
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