Fore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com

More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.comFore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com36THE EDUCATION OF AYN RAND, 1905–1943Adding to her cynicism was a battle with Al Woods over Night ofJanuary 16th that consumed most of 1935. The clash was in some waysinevitable. Rand was a jealous author, unwilling to consider any changesto her plot or dialogue, especially those monologues about the importanceof individualism. Woods was a moneymaker, primarily interestedin the play for its unusual jury setup. He had little interest in arguingwith Rand, instead steamrolling her by talking about all the other hits hehad produced. By the time of the first performance she had essentiallydisowned the play. Later the two would enter arbitration over her royalties.63 It was the start of a pattern that would mark Rand’s career. Hername was finally in lights above Broadway, but fame, when it came, wasalmost as difficult for her as anonymity.Just as Rand reached her lowest point with Woods, she learned thather new literary agent had managed to sell We the Living to Macmillan.Like other publishers, the editorial board at Macmillan had balked atthe novel’s ideological messages but eventually decided to take a gambleon the work.The reviews that We the Living garnered when it was published in 1936only reinforced Rand’s suspicions that something was terribly wrong inAmerica. The newspapers were filled with propaganda about Russia, butit was Rand’s true-to-life novel that was dismissed as a sham. “The taleis good reading, and bad pleading. It is not a valuable document concerningthe Russian experiment,” wrote the Cincinnati Times-Star. TheNation doubted that “petty officials in Soviet Russia ride to the operain foreign limousines while the worker goes wheatless and meatless.”Trying to strike a conciliatory note, a Toronto newspaper noted that the1920s were “a transition period in the life of the nation.” That Rand’stestimony was inconsistent with “the descriptions of competent observerslike Anna Louis Strong and Walter Duranty does not necessarily discreditit entirely.” 64 Even reviewers who praised Rand’s writing seemedto assume that her rendition of life in Russia was as imaginative as theimprobable love triangle that structured the plot.There were a few exceptions, mostly among journalists suspicious ofthe new vogue for all things Soviet. Elsie Robinson, a spirited Hearstcolumnist, praised Rand effusively: “If I could, I would put this bookinto the hands of every young person in America. . . . While such conditionsthreaten any country, as they most certainly threaten America, no