To William Mullendore [Letter 124]

William Mullendore (1892–1983) was executive vice president and later president of Southern California Edison.

January 17, 1944 

Dear Mr. Mullendore:

Please forgive me the delay in acknowledging your note and the excerpts from Toohey’s speech which you sent me. Allow me to thank you now and to tell you that I appreciated it very much. 

I was rather thrilled by the excerpts you chose—it was very interesting for me to see what impressed you out of that speech. I note that you picked several which were my own favorite lines, such as: “Suspend reason and you play it deuces wild.” 

I hope that I will have an opportunity to see you again and to talk to you. You were one of five guests at that dinner who, I felt certain, were true and intelligent conservatives.[*] Unfortunately, I was not so sure about some of the others—and I should have liked to hear more from you. 

With my best regards,

Sincerely yours,

Ayn Rand

*The dinner, held on December 21, 1943, was hosted by Leonard Read. The guest list is not known.

In 1961, AR described Mullendore as “the only businessman that I know of—then or in fact now—who was completely uncompromising. He was for free enterprise, laissez-faire, with no middle of the road, none of that conservative compromising.”