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FROM RUSSIA TO ROOSEVELT 25
Hickman, but what Hickman suggested to me.” Still, Rand had trouble
interpreting the case as anything other than an exercise in mob psychology.
She wrote, “This case is not moral indignation at a terrible crime. It
is the mob’s murderous desire to revenge its hurt vanity against the man
who dared to be alone.” What the tabloids saw as psychopathic, Rand
admired: “It is the amazing picture of a man with no regard whatever for
all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. A man
who really stands alone, in action and in soul.” 33
Rand appeared to be drawing from both her own psychology and
her recent readings of Nietzsche as she mused about the case and
planned her story. She modeled Renahan along explicitly Nietzschean
lines, noting that “he has the true, innate psychology of a Superman.”
To Rand a Superman was one who cared nothing for the thoughts, feelings,
or opinions of others. Her description of Renahan as Superman
echoed her own self-description as a child: “He is born with a wonderful,
free, light consciousness—resulting from the absolute lack of
social instinct or herd feeling. He does not understand, because he has
no organ for understanding, the necessity, meaning or importance of
other people.” 34
Rand’s understanding of the Superman as a strong individual who
places himself above society was a popular, if crude, interpretation of
Nietzsche’s Übermensch. 35 What stands out is her emphasis on Renahan’s
icy emotional alienation. Rand clearly admired her imaginary hero’s
solipsism, yet she had chosen a profession that measured success by
popularity. The tension between her values and her goals produced an
ugly frustration. “Show that humanity is petty. That it’s small. That it’s
dumb, with the heavy, hopeless stupidity of a man born feeble-minded,”
she wrote. 36 This anger and frustration, born from her professional
struggles, was itself the greatest obstacle to Rand’s writing career.
Rand’s bitterness was undoubtedly nurtured by her interest in
Nietzsche. Judging from her journals, unemployment precipitated a new
round of reading his work. Her notes fi lled with the phrases “Nietzsche
and I think” and “as Nietzsche said.” Her style also edged in his direction
as she experimented with pithy aphorisms and observations. More signifi
cantly, Nietzsche’s elitism fortifi ed her own. Like many of his readers,
Rand seems never to have doubted that she was one of the creators, the
artists, the potential Overmen of whom Nietzsche spoke. 37
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