Atlas Shrugged.

RAND, Ayn.

Item Number: 127432

New York: Random House, 1957.

First edition, early printing of one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century. Large octavo, original green cloth, frontispiece stamped in gilt, spine stamped in black and gilt. Association copy, lengthily inscribed by the author on the half-title page, “To Mr. and Mrs. Jacques Minkus- the royal family of the wonderful world of stamps- thanking you for the great pleasure you made it possible for me to find- Ayn Rand December 4, 1970.” The recipient, Jacques Minkus established stamp counters for postage stamp collectors at numerous department stores in the United States. Minkus established his first stamp counter at Gimbels department store in Manhattan in 1931. He was successful in this method of selling stamps and continued to open stamp counters in department stores until the 1960s, when he had opened thirty eight counters. Minkus also published a stamp catalog titled Minkus New World Wide Stamp Catalog starting in 1955. Minkus published Rand’s article “Why I Like Stamp Collecting,” which Rand touts the hobby as “a miraculous brain-restorer.” Rand began collecting at the age of ten but was forced to give it up when she fled the Russian Revolution. She returned to philately later in life, enjoying the fraternity of collectors, the thrill of the hunt, and the aesthetics of fine stamps. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by George Salter. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. An exceptional association.

“From 1943 until its publication in 1957, [Rand] worked on the book that many say is her masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged. This novel describes how a genius named John Galt grows weary of supporting a society of ungrateful parasites and one day simply shrugs and walks away. He becomes an inspiration to like-minded men and women, all of whom eventually follow his example, until society, in its agony, calls them back to responsibility and respect. Again [as with Rand’s novel The Fountainhead in 1943] reviews were unsympathetic, and again people bought the book” (ANB). The theme of Atlas Shrugged, as Rand described it, is "the role of man's mind in existence." The book explores a number of philosophical themes that Rand would subsequently develop into the philosophy of Objectivism. By 1984 more than five million copies of Atlas Shrugged had been sold, and in a 1991 Library of Congress survey Americans named it second only to the Bible as the book that had most influenced their lives. It is the basis for the trilogy of film adaptations subtitled Part I (2011), Part II (2012), and Part III (2014).