By far, Ayn Rand's rarest article– and without attribution at first appearance..

“Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” was the $99,000 question asked by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the U.S. House of Representatives.

They called it the “Red Scare,” a household term in 1947. For some, it was characterized by “hysteria;” for others, as a legitimate inquiry into the growing threat of Communist influence of the motion picture industry. The first systematic Hollywood blacklist was instituted on November 25, 1947, the day after ten left-wing screenwriters and directors were cited for contempt of Congress for refusing to answer before HUAC. Boldfaced names throughout the entertainment industry, from Charlie Chaplin to Orson Welles, Leonard Bernstein to Lena Horne, saw their careers derailed over fears of their ties to the Communist party. “Under these conditions I find it virtually impossible to continue my motion-picture work, and I have therefore given up my residence in the United States” (Orson Welles, Time, 1953).

Four years after publication of The Fountainhead, ten years before Atlas Shrugged appeared, Ayn Rand wrote her “Screen Guide for Americans,” which she addressed “to the independent judgment and for the voluntary action of every honest man in the motion picture industry.”

Still, the question perplexes: When and where did it first appear?

On September 27, 1947, Rand wrote Ben Stolberg, organizer of the American Writers Association: “Thank you for your praise of the “Screen Guide for Americans….Under separate cover, I am sending you twenty copies of the ‘Screen Guide,’ together with envelopes which were made for the purpose of mailing them.” In an editorial comment following this letter, Michael Berliner, editor of Letters of Ayn Rand (New York: Dutton, 1995) writes, “The Guide was published in the November 1947 issue of Plain Talk, a conservative political magazine.”

Yet Rand’s letter to Stolberg was dated September 27, 1947, clearly after Stolberg had read the “Guide” and well before the November 1947 issue of Plain Talk saw publication. Clearly, Rand referred to her “Screen Guide” article, not her “Sceen Guide” in Plain Talk, as yet unborn.

An edited version of the “Screen Guide” did appear in the November, 1947 issue of Plain Talk, published in New York, mid-November. The “Screen Guide” pamphlet, however, published by the Motion Picture Alliance for the preservation of American Ideals, Beverly Hills, was the first and only separate edition of this early Rand article, intended as a manifesto of the MPA, but written by Rand, without attribution.

If only there were a way to compare/contrast both… .

According to Plain Talk, “Ayn Rand wrote SCREEN GUIDE FOR AMERICANS – the most penetrating analysis of totalitarian propaganda we have yet seen – at the request of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals (MPA), as an official statement of that organization’s stand.”

Of the “Screen Guide,” and omitted from the edited Plain Talk article, Rand states: “It is intended as a guide and not as a forced restriction on anyone. We are unalterably opposed to any political ‘industry code’, to any group agreement or any manner of forbidding political opinion to anyone by any form of collective force or pressure. There can be no ‘group insurance’ in the field of ideas. Each man has to do his own thinking. We merely offer this list to the independent judgment and for the voluntary action of every honest man in the motion picture industry.”

This Rand pamphlet is rare. It last appeared in commerce January, 2004, when PBA Galleries offered it at auction. In its 2004 description, PBA wrote: “No copies appear at auction in the past 25 years and only two copies appear on OCLC's WorldCat, one of which, Michigan State University's, has been reproduced in complete facsimile online.”

It appeared in full exactly as Rand wrote it in Journals of Ayn Rand (New York: Dutton, 1997) – and in this rare first printing.

Accompanying the pamphlet is the November, 1947 issue of Plain Talk, where her name appears at the top of the cover page.

The “Screen Guide” pamphlet (Perinn C2) contains some mild toning and and creasing. No writing or markings of any kind. Plain Talk evidences moderate toning and rubbing. Three punched holes on the left side. No writings or markings of any kind.

Incomparably Rare Ayn Rand. Book #Bv1444