Rand, Ayn

Autograph manuscript being Rand's first speech delivered at Ford Hall Forum in Boston on 26 March 1961, entitled, "The Intellectual Bankruptcy of Our Age," 52 pages, (11 x 81/2 in.; 280 x 217 mm), with extensive emendations in blue ball point, red ball point, and red pencil; light discoloration at left margin of first page, otherwise in fine condition.

Purchased by the present owner at a benefit auction for the Ford Hall Forum's 75th Birthday Gala, 1983.

Ayn Rand. The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought, 1989; Jennifer Burns. Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, 2009; Anne Heller, Ayn Rand and the World She Made, 2009.

"I am addressing an audience consisting predominantly of my enemies—that is: of so-called 'liberals.'" Thus begins Rand's incendiary lecture on the intellectual crisis plaguing America. She explains that in the 1930s  she envied "liberals" for their intellectual approach to political problems. "Today, I have no cause to envy 'liberals' any longer. For many decades, the 'liberals' had been representatives on the intellect in America . . . while the so called 'conservatives' allegedly devoted to the defense of individualism and capitalism, went about apologetically projecting such a cracker-barrel sort of folksiness that Li'l Abner would have found embarrassing; the monument to which may still be seen in the corridors of the New York Stock Exchange, in a costly display of statistical charts and models proudly entitled: THE PEOPLE'S CAPITALISM." Now, Rand believes liberals and conservatives are merging and the Republican and Democratic parties are becoming indistinguishable. She asks: "What social or political group today is the home of those who are and still wish to be the men of intellect?" She answers: "None. The intellectuals . . . are now homeless refugees, left behind by a silent collapse they have not had the courage to identify. Rand identifies it. Intellectuals of the nineteenth century failed to embrace capitalism: "The rest is history—the shameful, sordid, ugly history of the intellectual development of the last hundred and fifty years.

Rand also provides a sharp commentary on the intellectual disintegration of today's political discussions,"the shrinking of issues and debates to the level of single, isolated, superficial concretes, with no context, with no reference to any fundamental principles, no mention of basic issues, no proofs, no arguments, nothing but arbitrary assertions 'for ' or 'against.'" She proceeds to provide an example: ". . . observe the level on which the last presidential campaign was fought [Kennedy versus Nixon in 1960]. Did the candidates discuss foreign policy? No—just the fate of Quemoy and Matsu [two islands between China and Taiwan]. Did they discuss socialized medicine? No—just the cost and the procedure of medical aid to the aged. Did they discuss government control of education? No—just who should pay the teachers' salaries: the federal government or the states."

Delivered to a packed room on 26 March 1961 at Ford Hall Forum, a famous stronghold of free speech on the Northeastern University campus in Boston, the lecture was an extraordinary success. In fact, Rand was so well received she proceeded to present no less than eighteen more lectures over the next twenty years at the Ford Hall Forum. Though the lectures usually began at 7:30 p.m., fans from the world over would start lining up the night before to exchange ideas as they waited anxiously for Rand to speak.

Rand dates the manuscript of her lecture March 7, 1961 at the top left corner of the first page. Her jagged and deliberate penmanship is characteristically powerful. The fifty-two pages of text are riddled with hundreds of her own additions, deletions, and corrections. The markings in red pencil and red ink appear to be accomplished by an editor as the lecture was readied for publication. Interesting to note is the fact that the original manuscript differs significantly from the published version in Rand's The Voice of Reason: Essays in Objectivist Thought, 1989. For example, the very first line of her speech differs from the published version. In the manuscript the opening line is: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am speaking here today on the assumption that I am addressing an audience consisting predominantly of my enemies—that is: of so called 'liberals.'" In the published version, "Ladies and Gentlemen" has been deleted and the word "enemies" has been changed to "antagonists." Other discrepancies between the manuscript and the printed text abound providing important insights to Rand's writing process.

Complete manuscripts by Rand are excessively rare at auction.