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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.comA ROUND UNIVERSE 137By the time he met Rand he had memorized The Fountainhead. Told asentence from the book, he could recite the one immediately before andimmediately after. Now he began speaking to Rand on the phone severaltimes a day and spent nearly every Saturday evening at her house. Randwas like an older, feminine version of himself—although at first, Nathandid not see her as a woman. Two months after their meeting Nathangave her a letter to the editor he had published in the UCLA newspaper,inscribed “To My Father—Ayn Rand—the first step.” 11The letter Nathan inscribed to Rand, which also listed Barbara as anauthor, was a virulent attack on F. O. Matthiessen, a literary critic andHarvard professor who had committed suicide while under investigationfor past Communist associations. Matthiessen’s widely publicized deathwas mourned by his colleagues on the left, who considered him the firstscholarly martyr of the Cold War. Nathan and Barbara would have noneof it. Instead they reinterpreted his death in Randian terms, attributingit to the irrationality of Communism. In his letter Blumenthal asked, “ifa man places his hopes in an idea which contains an irreconcilable contradiction,and when he sees all exponents of this idea turned corruptand fail in their aims—is there anything heroic about killing himselfbecause an idea which can’t work is not working?” Strident and tasteless,the letter averred that people like Matthiessen “deserve no pity whatsoever;rather do they deserve to be condemned to hell.” The letter causeda bitter controversy at UCLA. It forever poisoned Barbara’s relationshipwith a philosophy professor who had been close to Matthiessen. Beforethe letter was published the professor had been attentive and welcomingto Barbara, even joining the couple for a visit to Rand in Chatsworth,after which he pronounced himself deeply impressed. Now he counterattackedin the student newspaper and began criticizing Barbara openlyin class. His hostility was so intense Barbara realized she would have toleave UCLA if she wanted to continue studying philosophy on the graduatelevel. Blumenthal was unfazed by the upheaval. He was a crusaderwho had found his cause. 12His allegiance now transferred to Rand, Nathan began to break freefrom his birth family. He picked a fight with his socialist older sister,berating her in angry letters for her immorality and inconsistency, hislanguage taken straight from Rand. On a trip home he shouted so muchhe claimed, “my throat’s getting hoarse.” Rand, seeing her former self