"I am an advocate of laissez-faire capitalism, of individual rights -- there are no others -- of individual freedom. [A]bove all, schools should all be privately owned and privately run. I advocate the separation of state and economics -- in the same way, and for the same reasons, as the separation of church and state" (Playboy's Interview with Ayn Rand, March 1964). Rand s final novel, Atlas Shrugged, and only one of her non-fiction works, Capitalism The Unknown Ideal, "a non-fiction footnote to Atlas Shrugged," detail her ethical-epistemological (and often economic) justifications for these prescriptions. This copy, from the legendary library of Ryan York, Ayn Rand collector extraordinaire, who had sent Rand several items to secure her signature on July 4, 1976, our Bicentennial, a date Ayn Rand considered sacred. "If it is ever proper for men to kneel," she wrote in 1972, "we should kneel when we read the Declaration of Independence" ("A Nation's Unity"). 

As I understand the undertaking from Mr. York: He had written Rand, asking her to sign and date several books July 4, 1976. Reluctant to interrupt Rand's celebration on that date, he offered that she sign whenever she wanted; he asked only that she date each signature on our nation's Bicentennial. "They will be signed on July 4 or not at all," Rand wrote Ryan with evident indignation. I can think of no other letter that so precisely, concisely encapsulates Ayn Rand. The letter has never appeared in commerce. 

This First edition, seventh printing copy, near-fine with some sensitivity to upper and lower spine. No Writings or Markings of any kind except Ayn Rand's on the half-title. In an unclipped jacket with minor chipping and small creases at edges. Celebrate America's Bicentennial with Ayn Rand! Book #Bv2405. $1695. From the world's largest collection of Rare, signed, Manuscript, and Photographed Ayn Rand in private hands.