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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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by her. Then somebody at Random House read these essays, which certainly I wasn't going to. It developed that one of the essays likened Jack Kennedy to Hitler, saying that their speeches and objectives were basically the same. I read the piece and absolutely hit the roof. I said, “I'm not going to publish any book that claims Hitler and Jack Kennedy are the same.” JFK was still alive at this time. Ayn charged in and reminded me, “You said when I came to you that you would publish anything that I wrote.” I said, “That was novels. I didn't know that you were going to go into this sort of thing. You can say anything that you want in a novel, but this is something that I did not contemplate. All that I ask you to do is leave this one essay out.” (There were about fifty essays in the book.)

Ayn was enraged. Arguing with her was like running your head up against a stone wall. I remember when Atlas Shrugged was being edited by Hiram Haydn, John Galt, her hero, made one speech that lasted thirty-eight pages. All that he said in this speech had been said by Ayn about four times before in this book. Hiram couldn't get her to cut it. I very angrily said, “You're some editor. Send her in to me. I'll fix it in no time.” So Ayn came in and sat down, looking at me with these piercing eyes. I said just what I've told you about this speech, adding, “Ayn, nobody's going to read that. You've said it all three or four times before, and it's thirty-six or thirty-eight pages long. You've got to cut it.” Ayn looked at me calmly and said, “Would you cut the Bible?" So, I gave up.





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