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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.comA ROUND UNIVERSE 161Nathan completed his master’s degree and began working as a full-timetherapist. Frank underwent the most dramatic transformation. Oneevening, spurred by a philosophical disagreement, several membersof the Collective tried painting. The results quickly disproved Rand’sassertion that artistic skills could be easily taught to anyone, for Frankoutstripped the others immediately. As his background in floral designsuggested, Frank was a natural. Soon he was drawing at every turn, fillingsketchbooks with his work.Rand too was rejuvenated and relieved. She was finally prepared tobegin shopping the manuscript around, and with The Fountainhead stillselling briskly, had her pick of eager publishers. Bobbs-Merrill, whichhad first right of refusal on her next book, pronounced an early versionof Atlas Shrugged “unsaleable and unpublishable,” setting her free on themarket. She mentioned the book to Hiram Haydn, who had left Bobbs-Merrill for Random House. Despite Random House’s liberal reputation,Rand was impressed that they had published Whittaker Chambers’sWitness and was willing to give them a hearing. She was also interestedin having her old editor, Archie Odgen, onboard. Ogden was no longeremployed by a publishing house but had agreed to work with Viking asthe editor of her novel, should they publish it. Rand was unsure if thisad hoc arrangement would be right for her prized creation.Haydn and his boss, the legendary Bennett Cerf, played their cardsperfectly. They proposed a lunch with Rand simply to learn more aboutthe book. When Rand’s agent torpedoed the plan for being unfair toother publishers, they had another suggestion to make. What if Randhad lunch with every seriously interested publisher? They were evenamenable to a dual submission, should Rand choose. At lunch Haydn,Cerf, and a third editor quizzed Rand about the implications of herbook. One ventured that if the novel was an uncompromising defense ofcapitalism, it would necessarily contradict Christian morality. Rand waspleased with the observation. Random House was offering her respectand understanding, if not agreement. By the end of the lunch she hadessentially made up her mind. It took Random House a similarly shorttime to make an offer on the manuscript. Haydn himself found Rand’sphilosophy repugnant, but could tell that Atlas Shrugged had “best-seller”stamped on it. He and Cerf were sure it would be an important and controversialbook and told Rand to name her terms. 60