"America's Persecuted Minority: Big Business"; Papers of Ayn Rand at Butterfield's November Auction

Business Wire, Oct 28, 1998

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 1998--A library of nearly 5,000 Ayn Rand handwritten pages including personal letters, manuscripts and drafts of articles and novels highlights Butterfield & Butterfield's Wednesday November 18 book and manuscript auction to be simulcast between Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Butterfield, Butterfield & Dunning gallery in Elgin, IL.

More than 80 lots valued at nearly $700,000 will be offered.

To be sold to the highest bidders is a collection of manuscripts comprising virtually all of Rand's literary output between 1962 and 1974. This comprehensive offering includes her critiques of the motivations and actions of both those on the political right and the left. These articles appeared in The Objectivist Newsletter, The Objectivist and The Ayn Rand Letter (est. $400,000/$600,000).

A lot perhaps of interest to opponents of anti-trust suits is Rand's 61 page handwritten text for a speech before Boston's Ford Hall Forum in 1961 (est. $20,000/30,000). In the text Rand relates that America's most persecuted minority is big business and that "...businessmen are the symbol of a free society, businessmen are the symbol of America. If and when they perish, civilization will perish."

Additional manuscript material includes a 1955 nine page draft of an unfinished essay. Rand often set out to complete essays as an efficient method of organizing sections of her novels. This example, titled "Consciousness, Purpose and Happiness" is the basis for John Galt's radio address in the writer's magnum opus Atlas Shrugged (est. $10,000/14,000).

Twenty-nine original manuscript pages of Atlas Shrugged are expected to bring $50,000 to $75,000. A 1991 Library of Congress/Book of the Month Club survey ranked Atlas Shrugged as the second most influential book among respondents. The number one book in the survey was the Bible.

Several Rand letters are to be offered including missives to friends and associates. In a letter to a journalist, Rand recounts (off the record) the "greatest experience of my life..." after being allowed to operate a mega-ton diesel train at 80 mph. The letter is expected to fetch $2,000 to $3,000.

In a letter to a "Miss Lev," Rand answers questions about both her husband and a character in the best seller The Fountainhead (est. $3,000/4,000). A typed script for a never-performed stage play version of The Fountainhead is expected to bring $12,000 to $16,000. The film version of The Fountainhead (Warner Bros., 1949) starred Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal.

Signed photographs included in the sale feature both candid and formal posed shots. One lot, consisting of 53 black & white photographs is expected to bring $1,500 to $2,000 while a signed photo of Rand is set at $1,000 to $1,500. A unique lot is a pack of "Galt's Gulch" cigarettes from Random House created for a promotional event. The pack, expected to fetch $600 to $900, contains nine out of ten cigarettes, each stamped with a gold dollar sign.