In my continuing series of book auctions, the great Libertarian Ayn
Rand, author of undoubted FANTASIES (thus the tie-in with
rec.arts.sf.written) about society and politics (both of which were
made into movies): "ATLAS SHRUGGED" and "THE FOUNTAINHEAD", comes in
for some attention today in an event ending about eight hours from now
on eBay, as the 1961 Caxton Press edition of "ANTHEM", what Wikipedia
calls her "dystopian science fiction novella" , which takes place in
some future DARK AGE which mankind has entered as the result of
SOCIALIST and COLLECTIVISM that have obliterated the concept of
INDIVIDUALISM,. in fact, in this book the word "I" has disappeared
from the English language.
Her major books, of course, THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED, are
pretty close to sci-fi as well. Unfortunately they sort of blur in my
mind, but then, I'm not a big Ayn Rand fan, and "Philosophy" was not
my favorite class. But I do know the phrase "Who is John Galt?" even
if I've forgotten now who the hell John Galt is... some libertarian
revolutionary, I believe... there is an undistinguished Central Valley
town in California named Galt... not too far from Lodi, as in the song
lyric: "Oh, Lord! Stuck in Lodi again!" And as for THE FOUNTAINHEAD,
most of us may remember the great stone-faced performance by Gary
Cooper as an architect who BLOWS-UP his own housing development
because a builder tinkered around with and degraded his architectural
concept, ends up on trial -- but walks away a free man after a
terrific libertarian court room speech!), and then is hired by the
William Randolph Hearst-type New York City newspaper tycoon (whose
wife he's been going to bed with), to build the TALLEST BUILDING IN
THE WORLD, (which we see in the last frames of the flick!). There is
some kind of phallic statement here about TALLEST BUILDING with Gary
Cooper standing on top of it, and his girlfriend coming up, up, up on
the outside elevator to see him... what was Ayn Rand thinking? Be a
real man, a real individual, stay away from socialism, and erections
result? You wonder that when you watch Cooper's curvaceous,
conceited, so-far-quite frigid future *** partner, frigid and unhappy
because she's never been in Cooper's arms yet, standing on the rim of
a mining pit, holding a riding crop, I believe, watching Cooper work a
pneumatic DRILL or PILE-DRIVER with requisite bouncy, muscular
enthusiasm, on the marble rock of a quarry site. I don't know much
about the woman's *** life, (Ayn Rand, that is!) Whether she was
straight, bi-***ual, or lesbian, is probably not our business, but
knowing whether any frustrations in her personal life may have led her
to conjure-up these social and political fantasies with the multiple
phallic overtones I've noted would be quite interesting.
This book with the auction ending TODAY, is "ANTHEM". pubished by
Caxton Press, Caldwell, Idaho. 1961. Hardcover, octavo, light green
with black lettering. Covers, edges and corners are all very good to
fine, and the text and interior are also in very good condition
throughout, with no visible damage, markings, names, etc., of any
kind. No dustjacket. This happens to be a SCARCE ITEM in THIS
EDITION for those AYN RAND enthusiasts, and anybody who would like an
obscure little sign-post on the road of life by this enthusiastic,
philosophical, libertarian female, who was writing the last of her
philosophical novels when most women were standing there, pregnant,
ironing their husband's ****rts while watching "Queen for a Day" or
"Art Linklatter's House Party" out of the corner of their eye on a
small B&W TV screen. (Ah! The Good Old Days!)
I looked at the database of books on ABE Search, which takes in more
than 13,500 book sellers around the world and a 100,000,000+ inventory
of books, and there were only TWO copies of "ANTHEM" for sale, and
both were going for $50.00.
So this is a SCARCE book!
Right now my copy has 4 bidders seeking to outdo each other, with some
last-minute 'sniping' among them possible, but the price is still just
$15.00. So there is a potential bargain out there, someone is going
to end up with it, and nobody knows who it will be until the bidding
is over!
To have a look at the specific item, just go to:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=110249991276&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=001
THANK YOU!! ------Ed
http://groups.google.com/group/BOOK-ADVENTURES-with-Ed-Augusts
http://stores.lulu.com/edaugusts
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