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WHO IS JOHN GALT? 1957–1968
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The Virtue of Selfi shness was the brainchild of Bennett Cerf at Random
House, who was eager to add to the Rand franchise. She was a veritable
golden goose for the house, which had published For the New Intellectual
and the Brandens’ biography, Who Is Ayn Rand? Combined sales were
well into the hundreds of thousands and showed no signs of leveling
off. Cerf suggested that some of Rand’s speeches and articles from her
newsletter could be repackaged as a stand-alone volume. In response
Rand proposed a new book, titled The Fascist New Frontier, after her
essay of the same name. Originally enthusiastic about the project, Cerf
grew increasingly uncomfortable with the book’s title as he tried unsuccessfully
to rouse the interest of his sales staff.
The title was intentionally provocative but also refl ected Rand’s
deep revulsion at the Kennedy administration. The famous line from
Kennedy’s inaugural speech, “Ask not what your country can do for
you, but what you can do for your country,” infl amed Rand. 52 (Milton
Friedman also found this sentiment objectionable, attacking Kennedy’s
statement in the very fi rst sentence of Capitalism and Freedom.) In
the title essay she juxtaposed excerpts from speeches by Kennedy and
Hitler to demonstrate their similarity; to her, both were collectivists
who demanded that men live for the state. Such a comparison was too
much for Cerf, who requested that she delete the passages and select a
new title. Rand angrily rejected both suggestions and accused Random
House of breach of contract. She had chosen the publisher because they
promised not to censor her work; from her perspective, Cerf’s request
proved their agreement was a sham. She split from Random House and
published the book instead with the New American Library, a division
of Penguin.
Cerf was slow to understand what had transpired. Not only had his
prize author left the house, but she had taken her friendship away too.
After an initial testy exchange of letters he waited in vain for further
communication from Rand. Even Kennedy’s assassination brought no
comment. He pleaded, “Truly, a profound but honest difference about
a publishing matter cannot have affected our relationship this deeply!
Please do write to me.” Rand fi nally relented with a brief note wishing
him well. Cerf was bemused and saddened by Rand’s attitude. He continued
to follow her career with interest. “How wonderful it must be to
be so sure you are right!” he commented to the circulation manager as
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