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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com136FROM NOVELIST TO PHILOSOPHER, 1944–1957that, but there was still a certain coldness about her. It was in her personality.She had her own mind and her own opinions—and that wasthat.” 7 Rand sought, with some success, to convert students to her ownpoint of view. One remembered, “I’d been confronted with 250 differentphilosophies, but it was all like a big wheel with its spokes all counterbalancingeach other, and I didn’t know what I thought anymore. Shebegan removing spoke after spoke after spoke. Finally, the wheel beganto turn. And I turned definitely in her direction.” 8 In contrast to themature conservatives she had met in New York and Hollywood, Randfound it easy to make converts out of the young seekers who flocked toher side.In the group of students that crowded around Rand, NathanBlumenthal stood out above all others. The connection between themwas immediate. Rand liked him from the start, and Blumenthal had asimple feeling: “I’m home.” 9 That first evening they dove into conversation,talking until the sun rose the next morning. It was shades of IsabelPaterson all over again, but this time Rand’s counterpart was not herpeer, but a handsome young man hanging on her every word. A fewdays later Blumenthal returned with Barbara Weidman, his future wife.Weidman too was entranced by Rand. She gazed into her luminous eyes,“which seemed to know everything, seemed to say that there were nosecrets, and none necessary.” 10 The couple soon became regulars at theranch. Although Rand was always eager to talk philosophy and politicswith her newfound friends, she also listened patiently to Barbara’s personaltroubles in long walks around the property. Chatsworth became arefuge for the two college students, who found their increasingly rightwingpolitical views made them distinctly unpopular at UCLA. For herpart, Rand had finally found a friendship in which she could feel comfortable.Blumenthal and Weidman didn’t demand more than Randcould give, they never challenged her authority, and their appreciationfor her work was a tonic.An impressionable teenager in search of an idol when they met,Nathan slipped immediately into Rand’s psychic world. He did not havefar to go, for his basic mentality was strikingly similar to hers. Like AlisaRosenbaum, Nathan was an alienated and angry child who felt divorcedfrom the world around him. Where Alisa had movies, he sought refuge indrama, reading close to two thousand plays during his high school years.