THE EARLY AYN RAND

            Nearly 400 pages never intended for publication – assembled and fulsomely introduced by Rand’s longtime protégé.  From the Twenties come four amateurish short stories, which do demonstrate Rand’s remarkably quick acquisition of basic narrative skills in English after her immigration from Russia; Peikoff also analyzes each work (except for an O. Henry-ish trifle) to find early evidence of the Objectivist philosophy – with much emphasis on “man-worship,” “valuers,” and Rand-style idealism.  From the early 1930s comes her first professional work, a scenario for a movie (sold to Universal for $1500) called Red Pawn; a heavy-handed illustration of “Communism vs. man-worship,” it ends in a Rand-ian blaze of uplift.  (“He took her in his arms and kissed her.  It was a long kiss.  He wanted to sum up his life in it.  They walked out together, her hand in his.  The sun greeted them, rising over the forest.  It rose slowly and its rays were like arms outstretched in a solemn blessing.”)  Two unpublished excerpts from Rand’s first novel We the Living follow – “No” (a collage of scenes from life in Soviet Russia) and “Kira’s Viking,” with the Rand-ian heroine’s dream of freedom.  And, though the volume closes with unpublished excerpts from The Fountainhead, two never-produced stage plays take up the most space:  Ideal (1934), which presents Rand, admits editor Peikoff, in an uncharacteristic “bad mood” (her hero is a bitter misfit, a “true idealist…in a minuscule minority amid an earthful of value-betrayers”); and Think Twice (1939) is a “philosophical murder mystery,” heavy on Rand themes and (especially at the close) stiff dialogue.  Unselective and adoring:  for Rand disciples only, though a curious few may want to browse a bit.