Great post Rich! Your Dad could still read it...and answer that question. :)
My Mom has read it (after I suggested it)...she gets it, but she's always been more aware and logical than most. I've given it to many others and suggested it numerous times...I do not understand the hesitation people have and I've chopped most of them off as a result.

This is such a great thread. It is so interesting to read the many different ways we all came to Ayn Rand.
I read Atlas somewhere between 14 and 16 when my mother recommended it to me after she had read it.
The most interesting thing to me is that I have 2 brothers, both of whom turned out to be lazy moochers. I'm pretty sure neither read Rand; they would be too lazy.
Since I read Atlas 45 years or so ago, I have been so sad to see it all coming true, and often I think, "But it doesn't have to be this way!"
So Galt's Gulch has been on oasis in the desert; comfort for my soul. I know people like you exist, but it means everything to actually communicate with you.

As Francisco says in AS1: Its a war and we need to take sides (paraphrased). I have become much less tolerant and more vocal. God save the bum that comes up to me looking for money. I engage them in conversation and ask them point blank why they actually think that I should work so they dont have to. I really do want the answer from their mouths. I am most upset by people that give them money and enable this behavior. I engage them too. I may be unpopular, but at this point I agree with Francisco's character. We have let these altruits get away with this crap for too long. Time to speak up.

my father did read AS. . on my recommendation.
as a "devout Baptist," he took issue with Dagny's
serial monogamy, and loved all the rest. -- j

My father passed when I was 6 and left my mother pregnant with the last of the 5 of us sons. But my mother could have benefited greatly from the reading in relation to how she managed the younger boys. She dealt with me much as you would expect a parent who had read AS, but with the others, she enabled their mooching and it stuck with them their entire lives. I finally was forced to shut them off around 40 just to save my sanity.

An interesting thought experiment.

My dad went through the depression and likely had little time to read while supporting his family. However, every decision he made, every bit of advice he gave me, was pure Rand. It was as if it were part of his whole fiber, a way of life. I have no idea where he learned to believe that way, but he lived and breathed Objectivism. I am so glad he did, as I saw it in action every day of my life.

Wow, did your post bring back memories. We moved from Wisconsin to Southern California in the early '50's. My dad started a paint contracting company with two other guys. One of them robbed them blind, they lost everything. My dad refused to press charges because the thief had some 5 children. Dad was afraid it might take food out of their mouths, and figured what good would it do to just put the guy in jail? The money was gone. My dad soon recovered by turning a few run down houses on his own, I helped the best I could, but I learned a whole bunch about repairing things and saving my money. Later my dad worked for Kelly Johnson at Lockheed's Skunk Works, Kelly also became a friend. I've got personal letters of recommendation from Kelly about my dad, some of my prized possessions.

Through dad later I got to meet his friend that he did some work for, some actor guy, that was going to run for governor of California. His friend actually won, and in later years went on to win the presidency of the United States. My parents both worked very hard on both of the campaigns, they really liked this guy. I've still got a happy birthday card that Ron and Nancy sent to my dad from the White House.

Sorry, I get carried away a little by some of your posts, so many of them just bring back little things that I have forgotten about. Thank You !!!

My father was an english teacher for his career. He read Atlas Shrugged and turned away from it. He never recommended it to his high school students. I am glad I was introduced to Ayn Rand by db who coaxed me into reading the Fountainhead first. I had the priviledge and pleasure of signing Pirate's copy of AS last night. guess which page?

My father never read the book, either, to my knowledge. After I read it twice and saw the first two movies, I gave a copy to each of my 4 daughters. Each had a personal inscription tailored to their own personality. It's important that we all spread the message to those we can influence.

Neither of my parents would have been able to conceptualize the truths of Ayn Rand's philosophy...however I was shocked to learn that my niece has read and loves her writings. Hope for the next generation.

One of my daughters liked reading AS and watching the movies. My wife liked the movies but doesn't read. My other daughter agrees with most of AR's values, but just thinks I'm weird.

None of mine would have got it.

I don't know who of my family has read AS. My mom died before I had read it, although I recall it having been on a bookshelf when I was a kid. My dad was never really a reader, not until the last 8 years or so. He was always a very hard worker, taught me the value of hard work, living within one's means, joy. He is retired now, just turned 82 this month, and is dating a lovely widow. I can honestly say a cousin of mine would have benefitted from it, had she not taken a very different path than I have. She became pregnant at 16, and went on to have 8 kids by 4 different fathers. Ugh. She would try to mooch off of me, which she tried in the past, but I have forbidden our Uncle from giving her my whereabouts. I have cut off those who are just along for the ride, who have nothing to offer in return. I just wish I had read it earlier in my life. It was on my list of must-reads, I just kept skipping by it until.....

My father was career military (Army Air Corp => USAF) and he did read Ayn Rand. It was his copy of Anthem, sitting on a table somewhere in the house, that I first picked up and read. We used to discuss the concepts in it (and later, in AS). When I was in High School, I checked out a copy of Atlas Shrugged and started reading it after dinner. When my mother woke up the next morning, I was still sitting in the same chair - reading. I was on the last chapter. When I finished the book, she sent me to bed and did the languishing dinner dishes herself.

My mother did not care for philosophy, or reading. She was quite influenced by what society thought was proper, but she did have a good gut feeling for economics and was generally conservative.

Both of my sisters have read Ayn Rand at one time or another. One of them is a socialist; one is a liberal. I disagree with them frequently...

Jan

What a great question!
My dad would not have read it. However, if by some miracle he did, he would have written it off as SciFi nonsense. Since the Gulch is not a therapy group, I won't go into it any deeper other than to say, that if my dad read it and actually liked and understood it, both our lives would have been much better and happier.

My dad was also a business owner. He already applied some of the philosophy to his life, but not all. His family was hit really hard financially when he was young so he had to produce for himself. I have heard tails that if he wanted breakfast before school he had to catch it himself by fishing off the Redondo pier. He worked hard, learned a trade and then started his own successful business. He was a capitalist, but I am not sure he would have liked the book.

My father never read AS and would have been puzzled by the lack of a link to Christianity. He was a hard worker, had a strong sense of ethics, smart with numbers but not a deep thinker. He was a Freemason and seemed to get a lot out of that association.
I was an only child and very rebellious from the start which created a gap between us that did not close until I was an adult and we could have a drink and shoot pool together. I introduced him to golf when he retired and he became a fanatic playing almost every day until he became ill at 91 and died at 92. Some of our best times were spent on golf courses even after he was more interested in finding lost balls than in playing the game.
When he was very sick he asked me what I thought happened when you die which was the first time our conversations bordered on philosophical issues. I told him that if he was looking for a comfortable answer he was talking to the wrong person and that I thought the answer was nothingness. He said aren't you scared that is true and I said no and would only regret it if I felt I had wasted my life. He said I thought that is what you would say and we never spoke of it again. Due to his background, I think he would not have benefited a lot from reading AS but nevertheless had beliefs and traits that many have acquired from reading it.

My father gave me other books along the same vein when I was a teenager, and I stupidly rolled my eyes at them until at least a decade later. No one in my family has heard of AS except for from me.

I gave a copy to my sister. She is a Marxist. My guess is she threw it out.

Hello, to anyone within 50 miles of Rowland, NC. I'm 50 from Florence, SC and Fayetteville, NC. Would like to get a dialogue going on a local level

I only read the book a few months ago and found myself wishing I had read it when I was a young man. When I finally started to look at this with my brain, rather than my heart, I realized it wouldn't have made much difference. When I was young I already leaned toward the Philosophy that was in the book which made me a misfit in my early life.
Placed in perspective; Ayn Rand's Books and Philosophy were way ahead of her time, or, often repeated throughout history depending on how you want to look at it.
I don't know your father so my apologies first; But I doubt that had your dad read the book it would have made any difference. Since I read the book and realized this for myself I made a point of seeking out and asking people who read the book 30 years ago one question. "What did you think about it?". Their response in many cases was "I never finished it." or "It was OK." Which means they never gave it another thought. (Hard for some of us today to believe, but true). Think about it. The 1960's were a great time to start and be in business. The war was over, many people had VA benefits that they used to start businesses with. There was little government regulation to "equalize and protect us from ourselves". Many people that read the book back then found it interesting to boring, because they couldn't picture what was happening today. If they had paid more attention back then to what Ayn Rand had to say, the book would be far less prophetic.
I'm sorry you are having trouble with your business. As a business man myself I certainly have had my troubles, but can offer some sound advice: When confronted with a problem ask yourself; "What would Hank Rearden or Dagney Taggart do?" I know these were not real people (or were they simply alter Egos of Ayn Rand) but they were charters that found solutions to their problems and then became emotional later. Theres a powerful secret there.
Good Luck