jbgotmar

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IT USUALLY BEGINS WITH AYN RAND 273
she had read his work, announcing, “Let me say that I have not read
and do not intend to read that book.” 69 Instead, she offered a review
of the reviews Rawls had received in the New York Times. Aside from
Leonard Peikoff, Rand had no other contributors to her publication,
and between Frank’s declining health and her own it was impossible for
her to produce a fortnightly publication unaided.
Rand was occupied primarily by personal events, particularly the
discovery of her long-lost sister Nora. In the spring of 1973 Rand was
shocked to receive word from Nora, whom she had presumed dead
decades ago. At a U.S.-sponsored art show in Leningrad, Nora picked up
a booklet on American authors and discovered her sister’s picture. She
wrote to the group sponsoring the exhibit, who in turn contacted Rand.
It was the fi rst news she had received of her family in more than thirty
years. The two women had a tearful phone conversation and arranged
for Nora and her husband to pay a visit. Rand was overjoyed. Here, after
the hard years of disappointment and betrayal, was a reward to brighten
her old age. Despite declining health she threw herself into preparations,
renting an apartment for the couple in her building and investigating
Russian communities in the area where they could settle. She would
sponsor Nora and Victor to stay in the United States, supply them with
whatever they needed to make their lives near hers.
But Nora’s visit was a disaster, a sad reprise of Rand’s last failed
days with Isabel Paterson. At fi rst the two sisters connected ecstatically.
Nora, though, was paranoid and suspicious, suspecting Rand’s driver,
cook, and Leonard Peikoff of being American spies. Shaped by years
of propaganda, she refused to believe they were not being watched.
Rand was frustrated by her sister’s inability to understand the freedoms
of America. Nora pushed back, criticizing the messiness and clamor
of Rand’s beloved New York. She showed little interest in her sister’s
books, instead devouring a volume by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, banned
in the USSR. Rand considered Solzhenitsyn the worst kind of Russian
mystical collectivist, but Nora praised his work. The two began to argue
nonstop. Rand canceled the parties she had planned for Nora as their
six-week visit devolved into a clash of wills. Nora was jealous of her
sister’s fame and fortune perhaps, or maybe she was just overwhelmed
by the differences between their lives. But she could not, would not
reject Russia as Rand expected her to. Equally stubborn and righteous,
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