Ayn Rand and the World She Made - Anne C. Heller [265]
Dagny Taggart and John Galt both fly solo: AS, pp. 634–640.
In a 1969 essay: Ayn Rand, “Apollo 11,” The Objectivist, September 1969, pp. 708–10.
The heiress’s assistant in the novel: “An Illustrated Life.”
In October 1924: Art Life and Laborer and Theatre, back issues for the years 1923–25; St. Petersburg Academy of Theatre Art, Pages of History.
Rand probably would not have been admitted: Petrograd State University Archives, fond 7240, inventory 5, file 3576, personal file of A. Z. Rosenbaum.
She and her mother both foresaw: Scott McConnell, “Ayn Rand’s Family and Friends, 1926–1951,” a lecture presented at ICON 2004, London, England, September 25, 2004.
In the late 1890s: Ellis Island documents provided by FB.
one of Anna’s aunts, Eva Kaplan, had immigrated: Two of Eva’s children were born in the United States; taped interview with Minna Goldberg, FB, and MS, conducted by BB, February 20, 1983, courtesy of MSC.
Sarah Lipton: Anna Rosenbaum’s cousin Sarah Lipton was married four times. In publications by the Estate of Ayn Rand, she is also referred to as Sarah Lipsky, Sarah Collier, or Sarah Satrin. Rand knew her best when she was Sarah Lipton.
sponsor her for a visit to America: Author interview with AR’s second cousin, Eva Kaplan’s granddaughter FB, June 21, 2004.
The Chicago cousins had brought over other Russian Jews: Author interview with FB, June 21, 2004.
Sarah Lipton owned and operated a Chicago movie theater: author correspondence with FB, December 16, 2004; AR, p. 29.
declared intention of visiting the United States: AR, p. 29.
almost every other window of escape would slam shut: By 1927, AR recalled, the Soviet government required a payment of five hundred dollars in gold or foreign currency to apply for a passport—kinds and amounts of wealth that Russians could be put to death for possessing. So the only way to get out of Russia was to be ransomed by a wealthy foreigner (“Woman Novelist Reveals Soviet Tyranny’s Horror”).
In the essay, which was discovered: “Editor’s Note on ‘Pola Negri,’ “Russian Writings on Hollywood, p. 15.
“ready to crush the man who dared to stand in her way”: Russian Writings on Hollywood, pp. 31–33.
She was granted a passport: AR, p. 30; AR:SOL, DVD.
She and her mother sent away for French passenger ships’ brochures: TPOAR, p. 59.
Harry Portnoy, Eva Kaplan’s widowered husband: National Archives and Records Administration, De Grasse Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States, February 10, 1926, column 19.
At Anna Rosenbaum’s suggestion: Author correspondence with Michael Berliner, June 2, 2005.
She would have to travel three hundred miles: Latvia was still an independent nation. The United States had no embassy or consulate in Russia.
acquaintances … looked forward to seeing her back home again: Letter to Lev Bekkerman, August 28, 1926 (LOAR, p. 2).
sold the last of the family jewelry: AR, p. 30.
“the freest country on earth”: “America’s Persecuted Minority: Big Business,” Capitalism, The Unknown Ideal (New York: Signet, 1967), p. 48.
packed her few clothes and her typewriter: TPOAR, p. 60.
slipped on her mother’s old Persian lamb jacket: BBTBI.
She had asked Lev Bekkerman to be there: Author interview with BB, September 15, 2005.
the first and last time he kissed her hand: TPOAR, p. 60
“Just you wait!”: AR, p. 30.
THREE: FREEDOM TO
THINK: 1926–1934
“When I am questioned about myself”: Ayn Rand, “To the Readers of The Fountainhead,” 1945 (LOAR, p. 669).
she met her cousin Vera: AR, p. 31. Vera later moved from Berlin to Paris to work at the Pasteur Institute. She married a Frenchman and relocated to Lyon, where she lived under the Nazi occupation. She and AR were briefly reunited in New York in the early 1960s (100 Voices, Lisette Hassanil, pp. 257–59).
The two young women were photographed together: AR, p. 31.
they saw Der Wilderer: Illustrierter Film Kurier, 7. Jahrgang, 1925. Thanks to Joan McDonald of the Carl de Vogt Society and to Peter Doll for the translation.
Carl de Vogt…whom Rand adored: Michael Paxton, from the documentary film AR: