To Rose Wilder Lane [Letter 235]

AYN RAND
10000 Tampa Avenue
Chatsworth, California

July 24, 1946 

Mrs. Rose Wilder Lane
R.F.D. 4, Box 42
King Street
Danbury, Connecticut

Dear Rose Wilder Lane: 

Thank you very much for your review of ANTHEM. I did not expect any reviews on this little booklet, and appreciate yours most sincerely. 

Just between you and me, were you actually stuck on what kind of literary form ANTHEM represents—or was it just a very clever method you employed to arouse interest in the book? If you are really wondering about it, ANTHEM is a poem. 

I have been reading your monthly reviews with the greatest pleasure. It is the only literary publication of criticism that I can bear to read nowadays. 

I am enclosing an attempt of mine to give people a few straight answers on what our side represents. I think it might interest you.  

Sincerely,

Ayn Rand

Mrs. Lane’s review was published in the newsletter of the Economic Council, a pro-capitalist group. In her review, Lane wrote that Anthem “is a projection…of the basic principle of collectivism…. It is unique; it is remarkable. And if you think of books in this way, someday this first edition will be a collector’s item; Ayn Rand is a phenomenon in literature.”