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BIG SISTER IS WATCHING YOU 177
telling them, “This is no defense of free enterprise. This is the promotion
of the egotism and wrong understanding of one Ayn Rand. I am sorry
she wrote it; and I am doubtful that I should have given her as much
‘praise’ as I did in my letter to her. It is really an evil book.” Mullendore
was concerned lest his children look to Rand for guidance and carefully
explained the many errors he found in Atlas Shrugged. Similarly, many
of the National Review’s religious readers shuddered at Rand’s atheism
and her depiction of capitalism. Rand’s “attempt to portray characters
as living only by economic principles is preposterously impossible and
dangerous,” wrote one, and another applauded the magazine’s attempt
to draw fi rm boundaries, for “only when the ideological perverts are
removed from the camp, will true (ergo, Christian) conservatism make
the gains which are imperative for the survival of our way of life.” 19
By contrast, secular and agnostic libertarians were more likely to tolerate
or even embrace Rand. Murray Rothbard jumped into the fray on
Rand’s side. Rothbard was deeply impressed by Atlas Shrugged, and his
earlier reservations about Rand vanished. He began attending weekly
meetings at her apartment and enrolled in therapy with Nathaniel
Branden. As if to prove his loyalty, Rothbard began a letter-writing
campaign on behalf of Rand and her book. He sent querulous letters
to Whittaker Chambers and others who had negatively reviewed Atlas
Shrugged and began recommending it to many of his correspondents.
Ludwig von Mises also hailed the book, writing Rand to tell her how
much he enjoyed reading it. The novel meshed well with his deepseated
elitism. He told Rand admiringly, “You have the courage to tell
the masses what no politician told them: you are inferior and all the
improvements in your conditions which you simply take for granted
you owe to the effort of men who are better than you.” 20 He invited Rand
to attend his seminar as an honored guest.
Robert LeFevre, a radical libertarian and founder of the anarchistic
Freedom School, watched the controversy with amusement. He wrote
to Rose Wilder Lane, “ ‘Atlas’ has demonstrably agitated the complacent.
Perhaps it’s the size. Perhaps it’s the daring. Perhaps it’s the sex angle.
Perhaps it’s the anti-religious approach. Although I’ll probably not like
it when I read it, but not reading it (as yet) I like it.” Once he fi nished
the book LeFevre told friends he found Chambers’s review unfair. Rose
Wilder Lane was still dubious about Rand’s contribution. She worried
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