To John L. B. Williams [Letter 333]

[Page 1]
March 20, 1948

Mr. John L. B. Williams
The Bobbs-Merrill Company
468 Fourth Avenue
New York 16, N. Y.

Dear Mr. Williams:

Thank you ever so much for I SAW POLAND BETRAYED [by Arthur Lane]  and COMMUNISM AND THE CONSCIENCE OF THE WEST [by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen] which you sent me.

I am so immersed in writing that I am way behind in my reading. I have not read I SAW POLAND BETRAYED yet. I have only glanced through it, but as far as I can judge, it seems to be an excellent book, and I shall certainly read it as soon as I can.

I have read COMMUNISM AND THE CONSCIENCE OF THE WEST, since you asked me to tell you my opinion of it. I am sorry to say that I disagree with it quite emphatically. If you want to know my reasons, I will mention just one out of many: Monsignor Sheen is opposed to unrestricted, laissez-faire capitalism, claiming that it leads to monopolies. He does not prove or illustrate his point, but merely states it as a flat assertion; yet it is not true, neither theoretically nor historically. This point is so crucially important that I wish he had either stated his grounds for the assertion or refrained from making it. As you know, I am a supporter of free, complete, unrestricted, unlimited, laissez-faire capitalism.

I am glad that you sent me this book, because it interested me very much. I am interested in every philosophical viewpoint on this subject, even though I do find that most of them are sadly in error.

[Page 2]
Mr. John L. B. Williams
Page 2
March 20, 1948

My novel is gathering speed as it goes along. I was moving like a heavy freight at the beginning, but I am a good passenger train now and hope to become an express pretty soon. Would it please you to know that I have about 150,000 words done? I hope it won’t frighten you, but the novel will be much longer than that. Not as long as THE FOUNTAINHEAD, however (I hope).

With best regards,

Sincerely,

Ayn Rand