Indeed, in this essay she discusses a certainnclass of authors who write “storiesnof unusual events enacted by conventionalncharacters. The stories are abstractnprojections, involving actions onendoes not observe in ‘real life,’ the charactersnare commonplace concretes. Thenstories are Romantic, the characters Naturalistic.n. . .”nIf ever there was a description of ThenDriver, then this is it. As Henry Gait returnsnfrom a hard day of empire-building,nhe sits down to dinner with Mrs.nGait, his perfectly conventional wife,nand his daughters. Vera and the goodnaturednNatalie. There is also GrandmanGait, the stern family matriarch, whosensingle interest in life seems to be thenprice of stock in the Great MidwesternnRailroad; every night she asks Henry thenprice, and every night he dutifullynreplies. How Rand must have snorted innderision when she first read it! For it isnthe exact opposite of her own literarynaesthetic, which dictated that the Randiannpantheon be peopled by gods andnheroes, unencumbered by such unromanticnphenomena as mothers, wives,nand children.nNathaniel Branden’s theory that thenGarrett material was sitting in Rand’snsubconscious is highly unlikely. GivingnMiss Rand the benefit of every doubt,nthere are just too many details onenwould have to overlook in order to believenshe read The Driver and promptlyntransactionnSO/CHRONICLESnforgot all about it.nWhile not technically plagiarism innthe legal sense, the unacknowledgednand—in my view—conscious use of Garrett’snwork as a starting point for hernown does constitute intellectual fraud. Itnis fraud because Rand spent so muchntime denying not only her own past, butnalso the value of any and all tradition.nEspecially in view of the fact that then”official” biographical essay {Who isnAyn Rand?, by Nathaniel and BarbaranBranden, 1962), based on extensive interviewsnwith Rand, has a long accountnof the origins of Atlas Shrugged, whichnmakes no mention of Garrett. Rand’snsilence on this subject amounted to andeliberate deception. On the othernhand, this is not a case of word-for-wordnplagiarism, as with Martin Luther King’sndoctoral dissertation or with the commencementnaddress that a Boston Universityndean lifted from a speech bynmovie reviewer Michael Medved. It is ancase of denying one’s own roots, curiouslynakin to Rand’s bizarre attitude towardnthe concept of family. As The Passionnof Ayn Rand relates: “It was anphenomenon to which she seemednmonumentally indifferent. ‘It’s not chosennvalues,’ she would often say whennthe issue arose in conversation. ‘One isnsimply born into a family. Therefore it’snof no real significance.'” Ms. Brandennattributes this to “obliviousness to thenfact that there could be a love not tiednto intellectual values.” But, as we havenseen, neither did she acknowledge a kinshipnthat was tied to intellectual values,nsuch as her obvious affinity for the ideasnfirst expressed in The Driver.nAyn Rand vehemently denied her intellectualnancestors, but they have comenback to haunt her and her orthodox followers.nThe legacy of the true individualistntradition in America, of whichnRand was a small and somewhat eccentricnoffshoot, is today being rediscovered.nGaret Garrett was a key figure in anmovement which included John T.nFlynn, H. L. Mencken, Albert Jay Nock,n• Rose Wilder Lane, Frank Ghodorov, IsabelnPaterson—and, yes, Ayn Rand.nRand’s arrogant and ultimately self-defeatingninsistence on standing aloof fromnthe tradition of which she was a part wasnan error that her libertarian admirersnwould be foolish to repeat. At the endnof Atlas Shrugged, John Gait and his fellownstrikers come down from the mountains,nready to rebuild civilization. “Thenroad is cleared,” says Gait. “We are goingnback to the world.” Now that thenmyth of Ayn Rand’s uniqueness hasnbeen exploded, perhaps her latter-daynfollowers will come back to the world—nand, in the process, discover the secretnof their lost heritage.nJustin Raimondo writes fromnSan Francisco.nLearned, thoughtful, and superblynwritten …. ^k^^ -RobertNisbetn^y^y NATIONAL REVIEWnn this probing and thoughful book, ThomasnFleming has begun to address the principalnchallenge to our society and polity.”n-Elizabeth Fox-GenovesenCHRONICLESn”A thoughtful conservative of the old school.n… Progressives and radicals could benefitnfrom grappling with Fleming’s intellectuallynstimulating presentation.”nTHE PROGRESSIVEnISBN; 0-88738-189-8 (doth) 276 pp. $32.95nMajor credit cards accepted. Call (201) 932-2280nSend prepaid orders to:ntransaction publishersnr» I Department FLnElntransactionnnn^’—• Rutgers-The State UniversitynNew Brunswick, N.J. 08903n