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More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com274LEGACIESneither sister could let go of her disagreement and reach for commonground. By the close of the visit, both knew it was impossible for Norato settle in the United States. When Nora and Victor returned to RussiaRand was deeply disappointed. She had offered her sister freedom, andNora had chosen dictatorship. Nora was not like her at all—and somuch like her yet.Not long after Nora left, Rand was diagnosed with lung cancer. Shehad smoked two packs of cigarettes a day for decades, resolutely insistingthat statistics about their health risks were not reliable evidence.Now the proof was in her own labored breathing and fading energy.Before undergoing surgery on her left lobe she accepted an invitation tospeak at the West Point commencement ceremony. Facing an enthusiasticaudience of cadets Rand gave a rousing speech, “Philosophy, WhoNeeds It?, later reprinted in the West Point curricula. That summer shescheduled her operation. It was a success, but her recovery was painfuland slow. The Ayn Rand Letter fell almost a year behind its supposedpublication schedule. Rand mailed the August 1974 issue in May 1975,telling readers that the letter would soon become a monthly. After twomore issues she knew it was no use. The November–December issue, sheannounced, would be the final one.In the final Ayn Rand Letter, her effective exit from public life, Randsounded somber yet familiar themes. It was sad to cease publication, shetold her readers, but also a relief. Month after month she found herselfsaying the same things: “I do not care to go on analyzing and denouncingthe same indecencies of the same irrationalism.” She had lost thesense that she was leading an effective crusade that could reverse thedrift toward collectivism. Gone was the optimism that had led her toendorse Goldwater, to rouse campus audiences across the country, todissect the popular culture and media. Now she was “haunted by a quotationfrom Friedrich Nietzsche: ‘It is not my function to be a fly swatter.’” Rand recognized her own weariness, and also her own circularity.For all the distance she had traveled in her life, a few fundamentals stillguided her thought. Russia haunted her still, an object lesson in whatmight happen if the wrong ideas triumphed. The injustice served herfather resonated in the welfare state she opposed, both starkly demonstratingthe evils of altruism. Capitalism dragged under the weight ofcompromise and contradiction. For all the emotional upheavals she had