Stuart K. Hayashi
I first posted a version of this piece on February 2, 2005. Re-posting it every year has become an annual tradition for me. --S.H.
February 2, 2007, marks 102 years to the day of Ayn Rand's birth. That day of the month is of particular importance in American culture because, every February 2, if a politician crawls out of his hole and sees his shadow, we will have 60 more years of the welfare state.
As for Miss Rand's magnum opus, I enjoyed every syllable on each of the 1,087 pages of the paperback edition I read. The prose sparked vivid images that made me feel as if I were gazing upon an exquisite painting.
I was so enthralled by the grandeur of it all that I was quite sad to see it eventually come to an end.
And so I have only one complaint about Atlas Shrugged:
It was too short.
