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10,000 Tampa Avenue
Chatsworth, California
December 2, 1945
Mr. Ross G. Baker
The Bobbs-Merrill Company
468 Fourth Avenue
New York City
Dear Ross:
When you write me a letter containing a sentence such as âand further paper has been ordered beyond the 90,000 planned for,â you may be sure that Iâll be a good girl and that everythingâs right with the world for me.
So look at the enclosed pamphlet. Iâve accepted all the cuts you made and have even made a few more for you. I see by the cuts that you didnât want the pamphlet to be more political than the book itself. Youâre rightâthough not for the reasons you mention in your letter. Iâve made some more cuts because some of the things you left in lost all punch out of the full context. So theyâre better out entirely.
On page 3âplease give Roarkâs lines in full. Itâs my favorite passage in the book.[*] Since Iâve made other cuts, this wonât take too much space.
Page 4âthe readerâs statement must be given here, in order that my answer make sense. Are you afraid it sounds like adverse criticism? Iâm not.
Page 6ââNot by the public as an organized collectiveââthat, you must let me say. First, in justice to our readers. Second, if I donât make the distinction clear, every pink punk will be justified in yelping: Look, the collective made you successful!
In regard to the facsimile of my signatureâyouâre right. Omit it.
You must have forgotten, since we spoke over the telephone, that you did not say you wanted 1500 words. You said 2500. You might remember that I gasped slightly and said: âThat much?â And you said: âWell, we might cut it later.â I donât mind having it shorter nowâI even think itâs betterâbut please donât think I got carried away by the sheer pleasure of talking about myself. It would have saved me a lot of work if Iâd known that 1500 words would do.
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Please donât make other changes without letting me know. If this version is all right with youâplease send me a proof of it before the final printing.
Thank you for the ad in Publishersâ Weekly. Itâs very good. When you run the big ad you mentioned in the N. Y. Times, please send me a copy, too. I mean, after the fact, if you donât have time to do it before. As a suggestion, do include something in that ad that would indicate something of the nature of the book and make it interesting or exciting; I do think it would help. I hope, when you get the space, that you will run some individual ads for the book. Itâs earned them, hasnât it?
Would you send meâthis is just personal curiosity, not businessâa copy of that fancy Literary Guild ad which you showed me in your file? I didnât have a chance to read itâand the memory of it sort of haunts me.
Wait till you see the Kings Features condensation with the drawings. Iâve seen the advance proofs of the first week. Itâs excellent. Theyâll start running it in the papers on December 24th. Nice Christmas present for us.
I am, of course, extremely glad that you are now getting the paper for more books beyond the 90,000 copies. It is not too soon. I am counting on you to see, well in advance, that no breaks in the supply of books occur again. Los Angeles was completely out of books for three to four weeksâwhile the demand was growing. It was horrible. The shipments didnât arrive here until last week, November 23 to be exact. So you see why I was and am so concerned. Even though youâve done your best to get the books out early in November, we still lost the month of Novemberâdue to the shipping time involved. PLEASE do not let this happen again. Please plan your printings enough in advance to allow for shipping and delivery.
In fairness to you I must say that I am very happy about the situation of the book now, when itâs in print, and I am counting on you not to let me down. Thank you for the 90,000+, (and I hope many more +âs).
With my best regards,
Sincerely,
Ayn Rand
*The passage in Roarkâs speech to which AR is referring: âI wished to come here and say that I am a man who does not exist for others. It had to be said. The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing.â