jbgotmar

More oxford books @ www.OxfordeBook.com
THE REAL ROOT OF EVIL 123
to you here? It’s the theme of my next novel. This is only a brief, partial
statement—the subject is extremely complex. If I haven’t stated it clearly
enough—you’ll see me do better when I present it completely in the
novel.” 60
As Rand’s letter indicated, she had decided to forgo “The Moral Basis
of Individualism” and turned instead to the book that would become
Atlas Shrugged. The transition point came in the spring of 1946, when
Rand clashed with Wallis over his decision to sell her atom bomb project
to another studio. Frustrated that all her work had gone for naught,
Rand convinced Wallis to give her an entire year off to get started on her
novel. In long walks around the ranch property she began plotting the
book’s structure and imagining the major characters. By August she had
a complete outline. In September she began writing.
Rand’s creation of an imaginary world was interrupted by unhappy
news from the country she had left behind. For eight years, since the
Rosenbaums’ American visa was denied, Rand had not communicated
with her family. With the end of the war she hoped to reestablish contact,
and asked a friend in New York to help her send two packages of food
and supplies to her sisters in Leningrad. No sooner had Rand mailed off
her request than she received a letter from Marie Strachnov, a close family
friend and Rand’s fi rst English teacher. Trapped in a displaced persons
camp in Austria, Strachnov had no news of Natasha or Nora, but
reported that Rand’s parents had died years before, of natural causes.
Sorrowfully Rand told her, “you are now my only link to the past.” She
was adamant that Strachnov come to America, assuring her she would
pay all costs and support her upon arrival. When Strachnov did fi nally
make it to California, in large part due to Rand’s indefatigable efforts on
her behalf, she lodged with the O’Connors for nearly a year. 61
The news from Russia fortifi ed Rand’s anti-Communism. She continued
her work for the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of
American Ideals, authoring another article for The Vigil. This time she
avoided political theory and instead concentrated on practical measures
Hollywood studios could take to root out Communist infl uence. Her
“Screen Guide for Americans,” which would later be reprinted in the
conservative magazine Plain Talk, nonetheless encapsulated much of her
political thinking. In the guide Rand portrayed Hollywood Communists
as veritable Ellsworth Tooheys, carefully smuggling “small casual bits of
Fore more urdu books visit www.4Urdu.com