To Tammy Vaught [Letter 555]

Tammy Vaught was a young girl whom AR met when she stayed at the Vaught home in Titusville, Florida, at the time of the Apollo 11 liftoff. Rand was an avid stamp collector, as she explains in her article “Why I Like Stamp Collecting,” originally published in the Spring 1971 Minkus Stamp Journal and reprinted in The Ayn Rand Column. In the article, she credits Tammy with rekindling her interest in stamps.

January 30, 1970

Dear Tammy:

Thank you for the snapshot you sent me—you look very pretty and happy. Also, thank you for the First Day Cover with the Christmas stamp.

I am sorry that I am so late in answering, but it’s the U.S. stamps that took an awfully long time to sort out. I am not finished yet, I have more of the old regular issues which I’ll send you later.

All these new stamps are not from my office correspondence, we don’t get letters from the communist countries, such as East Germany or Roumania. But I’ve asked my friends to save stamps for me, and they’ve asked their friends—so now I have a network of stamp scouts gathering them from everywhere.

You have influenced me to bring order into my stamp collecting, I bought the Minkus “Master Global Album” and two special albums for U.S. stamps. I find that I really enjoy it enormously.

Tell me how you are getting along with your collection. Are there any particular series or countries that you like more than others? Have you had any luck with trading duplicates?

You ask whether we ever go camping. I wish we could, but the only traveling I do these days is from my bedroom to my desk and back again. I’ve been terribly busy.

Please give our regards to your family and our best wishes for the new year. Also, say hello for me to Ink Spot Junior.

Love,

Ayn Rand