Atlas Shrugged by RAND, Ayn (1905-1982) - 1957

New York: Random House, 1957. First Printing. Hardcover. Fine/Fine-. First Printing (so stated), First Issue dust jacket (10/57 on front flap and Random House logo and address without zip code on back flap), of Rand's dark vision of an America where corporate leaders "have succumbed to strangling government control." (NYPL) Thick demy 8vo (215 x 141mm): [8],1168,[4]pp. Publisher's electric-green cloth, title stamped in gold on black spine panel, top edge stained midnight blue, fore- and bottom edges untrimmed, lemon yellow end papers; in George Salter's iconic pictorial dust jacket, printed in sgades of green with contrasts of red and yellow; Fine (very lightly read, if at all), about Fine jacket (price-clipped). A truly superior copy of the author's magnum opus, final work of fiction, and most extensive statement of her Objectivist philosophy. NYPL Books of the Century, p. 163. Perinn A4. Vinson, p. 545.("The difficulty with Rand's philosophical analysis, and of her application of its results both in her fiction and in her treatment of social, artistic, and political ills in her essays, is that she is drastically simplistic.") Coan, p. 154 ("A political parable, a piece of science fiction, a dialog on ethics, a celebration of man as a heroic being."). Atlas Shrugged is a mystery story. As the world in Rand's novel moves closer to economic and political collapse, the great minds of the age begin to disappear: banker Midas Mulligan, jurist Judge Narragansett, musician Richard Halley, industrialists Roger Marsh and Ken Danagger, philosopher Hugh Akston. Who is robbing the world of its talent? Who is sinking ships taking the expropriated wealth of America overseas? Why was a revolutionary motor abandoned in a deserted factory? And, of course, "Who is John Galt?" At bottom, the mystery the plot poses concerns the "disappearance and rebirth of the rational faculty and the consequences for human existence." (Literary Encyclopedia) A New Yorker article noted that, as late as 1991, a "majority of Americans surveyed named Atlas Shrugged as the book that had most influenced their lives, after the Bible." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, with dust jackets carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).