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WHO IS JOHN GALT? 1957–1968
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that reviewed her work unfavorably. The rest of the Collective followed
suit, leaping to the defense of their leader. But Collective members themselves
were on uncertain ground. In Galt’s speech Rand had made judgment
into a virtue, telling her readers, “To withhold your contempt for
men’s vices is an act of moral counterfeiting” (946). Now if a member of
the Collective offended, Nathan would “invite that person to lunch, and,
in a quiet but deadly voice, I would inform him or her of the nature of
the transgression.” 26 Serious offenses could mean an appearance before
the entire Collective, a sort of show trial with Branden or Rand presiding.
Defendants who promptly confessed their guilt and promised to
work harder at living Objectivist principles were let back into the fold.
Murray Rothbard was again one of the fi rst outsiders to witness
this new direction. He had reconnected with Rand after reading Atlas
Shrugged, a work he considered “not merely the greatest novel ever written,
it is one of the very greatest books ever written, fi ction or nonfi ction.”
In an extraordinarily frank letter Rothbard not only sang the praises of
Rand’s novel, an “infi nite treasure house,” but apologized for avoiding
her in the past. Trusting that the author of Atlas Shrugged would receive
his confession in the proper spirit, he told her how their previous meetings
had left him depressed. It was not her fault, but his. He admitted,
“I have come to regard you like the sun, a being of enormous power
giving off great light, but that someone coming too close would be likely
to get burned.” Although his words revealed some lingering trepidation,
Rothbard was eager to close the gap he had created between himself
and Rand. “Please let me know if there’s anything I can do to promote
the sale of the novel,” he wrote, and enclosed as a peace offering a letter
attacking one of the book’s unfavorable reviews. 27 Within weeks the
Collective and the Circle Bastiat were back in close contact.
Once again Rothbard tried to keep his intellectual distance from Rand
but was psychologically vulnerable to her powers. After an all-night session
between the two groups he reported to a friend, “As clear and rational
as she is in so many matters, she is clearly muddled as a legal and
political theorist, where the Circle takes primary rank.” 28 Still, Rothbard
was being drawn into the Objectivist universe. For years he had suffered
from a variety of phobias, the most crippling being a fear of travel that
kept him from leaving New York. When Nathan promised that he could
cure this phobia in a manner of months, Rothbard eagerly signed up for
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