Essays on Ayn Rand's We the Living

by Mayhew, Robert; Berliner, Michael S.; Bernstein, Andrew; Britting, Jeff; Garmong, Dina; Ghate, Onkar; Lewis, John; McConnell, Scott; Milgram, Shoshana; Ralston, Richard E.; Ridpath, John; Smith, Tara; Trammell, Jena

• ISBN13: 9780739106976
• ISBN10: 073910697X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-03-12
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living, offers an early form of the author's nascent philosophy--the philosophy Rand later called Objectivism. Robert Mayhew's collection of entirely new essays brings together pre-eminent scholars of Rand's writing. In part a history of We the Living, from its earliest drafts to the Italian film later based upon it, Mayhew's collection goes on to explore the enduring significance of Rand's first novel as a work both of philosophy and of literature.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgments	xi
Bibliographical Note	xiii
Part 1: The History of We the Living
1 From Airtight to We the Living: The Drafts of Ayn Rand's First Novel	3	(44)
Shoshana Milgram
2 Parallel Lives: Models and Inspirations for Characters in We the Living	47	(20)
Scott McConnell
3 We the Living and the Rosenbaum Family Letters	67	(20)
Dina Schein Garmong
4 Russian Revolutionary Ideology and We the Living	87	(30)
John Ridpath
5 The Music of We the Living	117	(16)
Michael S. Berliner
6 Publishing We the Living	133	(12)
Richard E. Ralston
7 Reviews of We the Living	145	(10)
Michael S. Berliner
8 Adapting We the Living	155	(30)
Jeff Britting
9 We the Living: '36 and '59	185
Robert Mayhew
Part 2: We the Living as Literature and as Philosophy
10 We the Living and Victor Hugo: Ayn Rand's First Novel and the Novelist She Ranked First	223	(34)
Shoshana Milgram
11 Red Pawn: Ayn Rand's Other Story of Soviet Russia	257	(22)
Jena Trammell
12 The Integration of Plot and Theme in We the Living	279	(6)
Andrew Bernstein
13 Kira's Family	285	(18)
John Lewis
14 Kira Argounova Laughed: Humor and Joy in We the Living	303	(14)
Robert Mayhew
15 Forbidding Life to Those Still Living	317	(18)
Tara Smith
16 The Death Premise in We the Living and Atlas Shrugged	335	(22)
Onkar Ghate
Select Bibliography	357	(2)
Index	359	(8)
About the Contributors	367