To Leonard Read [Letter 190]

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February 13, 1946

Dear Leonard:

Thank you. I am glad that you liked ANTHEM. No, it has not been published in this country at all. At the time I wrote it, my publishers were Macmillan—and they would not publish it because they had gone violently pink.

Just a few days ago I received a request from a magazine that wants to use ANTHEM. (How or where they ever heard of it, I don’t know.) It’s the Famous Fantastic Mysteries magazine, published by Popular Publications, Inc., at 205 East 42nd Street, New York City. I have never heard of them before. Do you happen to know whether they are a “reactionary” outfit? I suspect they must be.

I don’t want to issue ANTHEM as a regular book now, because it is only a novelette and not big enough to follow THE FOUNTAINHEAD. But when you asked, in your letter: “Why don’t we get it published?”—did you mean as a pamphlet—specifically by The Pamphleteers? I think that might be a very good idea—if a fiction story fits in with The Pamphleteers’ program. Perhaps you might even be able to arrange to sell it, as a pamphlet, in bookstores and, if so, might get quite a large sale on the strength of my following. Let me know what you think of this.

I don’t know whether you can buy a copy of ANTHEM from England, but I shall order some more copies for myself and will present you with one.

Thank you for the new issue of Rose Wilder Lane’s reviews. Yes, they are very good. I have read SCIENCE AND THE PLANNED STATE. It is excellent and should be recommended to everyone on our side.

I am working very hard on the screenplay about the atom bomb. I would appreciate it very much if you would get me any information they care to give from the industrial concerns who were connected with the

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bomb project, such as DuPont, Stone & Webster, Westinghouse, General Electric, Kellog, Eastman Kodak and others. I do not need statistical data on costs, materials, labor, etc., nor technical details, nor anything that is confidential. What I need are factual incidents, concrete episodes or events that ocurred during the work on the project and that would illustrate the methods of free enterprise—concrete incidents showing the ingeniuty, efficiency, resourcefulness of American industrial concerns in solving unprecedented problems—any incidents typical of and symbolizing free enterprise. I should like to use real facts in my screenplay, rather than invented episodes.

Incidentally, I have read MANIFESTO FOR THE ATOMIC AGE by Virgil Jordan. All I can say to you by way of a literary review is: run. Run from the National Industrial Conference Board as fast as you can.

My best hope for your future plans,

Sincerely,

Ayn Rand