We The Living

Boldly SIGNED, warmly inscribed, and dated in 1951 by Ayn Rand! Rare, ORIGINAL (unrevised) text of We The Living! London: Cassell & Co., Ltd., 1947.PRESENTATION COPY. 1 vol., inscribed and dated on the front blank endleaf by Rand: "To Eugene D. Williams - - with sincere admiration - Ayn Rand July 21, 1951". Bound in the publisher's original blue/gray cloth, head and foot of spine ever so slightly rubbed, inner and outer hinges fine, some light offsetting to front blank otherwise VERY GOOD. The man to whom Rand inscribed this copy "with sincere admiration," Eugene D Williams, was associated with the legal firm Freston and Files, who were the regular studio lawyers for Warner Brothers and who also provided services to Ayn Rand apart from her Warner Brothers business with "The Fountainhead (1949) movie. Rarely does one find an inscription beyond her customary "Cordially." "We the Living," Ayn Rand's first novel, originally published in 1936, is set in Soviet Russia, from which Rand had fled to America ten years earlier. Astonished by the intellectual trends of America's "Red decade," the immigrant Rand set out to uphold and defend the American ideals of individualism and freedom. Rand resolved to expose the "noble ideal" of collectivism through the story of three young people whose lives are sacrificed by an all-powerful state. Originally titled "Airtight," this unvarnished account of communism details the methods by which the spirits of its best citizens are suffocated by the collectivist state. The initial American publication of "We the Living" was not a commercial success. Macmillan did not expect the novel to sell and did little marketing. Initial sales were slow and although they picked up later, Macmillan destroyed the plates before the first printing of 3000 copies had sold out. Eighteen months after its release, the novel was out of print. Rand's royalties from the first American edition amounted to $100. An edition revised by Rand was published in 1959, following the success of Atlas Shrugged (1957). This volume contains Rand's original, unrevised text. Lacks the scarce dust jacket. The best inscribed Rand value on the market! Book #Pv5b155. $4500. We specialize in Rare, Signed, and Manuscript Ayn Rand.