BARBRA STREISAND & HER NEW DESIGN BOOK

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BARBRA STREISAND has finished building her dream house and has started to think about her life.

The actor/director/singer has reached an agreement with VIKING PRESS for A PASSION FOR DESIGN, an illustrated book scheduled for the fall of 2010.

It includes photos of the MALIBU oceanfront compound she worked on for more than five years. In writing about where she lives, she has been writing about herself.

Long reluctant to discuss her private life, Ms. Streisand told the AP that she has been working on chapters, in long hand, for a separate book.

But she hasn’t made up her mind whether she will complete the memoir and publish it.

AYN RAND’S BOOKS & PHILOSOPHIES ALL THE RAGE

FROM CNN

I’ve always been fascinated by architecture.

It would be fabulous to possess the mastery to create things and watch a city take shape under your own personal specifications. Unfortunately, abstract mathematics are not my strong suit.

But being an architect would certainly be a cool profession.

Just as well. There are a variety of things that I’m talented at (mostly artistic) and I’d much rather be pursuing those passions at the end of the day.

This is my way of saying that I adore THE FOUNTAINHEAD. It’s one of the greatest books I’ve ever immersed myself in. I read it a couple of times during my adolescence and never forgot it. My soft cover copy is laying around here somewhere. I should get back to it one of these days.

I haven’t read ATLAS SHRUGGED yet. But AYN RAND was certainly a compellingly captivating woman and one hell of a brilliant writer.

As a person, I’m not sure. Her political views are at least 180 degrees from mine. I’m a liberal. Though I’m certainly all for making money, having a certain amount of success, possessing a grand lifestyle, being self centred (in a healthy way that doesn’t do damage to others) and glorying in individualistic behaviour, you can certainly take any of that too far.

But it certainly is interesting that she’s come back into vogue again. Not terribly surprising, though.

Her vision is sweeping, unique and well articulated. That’s enough to convince some people that it’s the holy grail.

Where is John Galt? reads a sign in the back of a vehicle heading down Interstate 85 in ATLANTA.

AYN RAND is finding new readers thanks to the economic crisis.

That quotation is actually wrong. As any reader of AYN RAND’S ATLAS SHRUGGED can attest, the correct line is WHO IS JOHN GALT?

But the point is well taken.

In the midst of the credit crisis and the federal government’s massive bailout plan, the works of Ms. Rand, a proponent of a libertarian, free market philosophy she called objectivism, are getting new attention.

It’s obviously getting attention from the general public. Sales of her books are “going through the roof,” said YARON BROOK, the president of the AYN RAND INSTITUTE.

According to Mr. Brook, ATLAS SHRUGGED, her most famous novel, has sold more copies in the first four months of 2009 than it did for all of 2008 – and in 2008, it sold 200,000 copies. It’s been in AMAZON’S TOP 50 for more than a month.

Not bad for a 1,100 page doorstop of a book that came out in 1957, by an author who died in 1982.

“So many people see the parallels with what’s actually going on, with the government taking over the banks, with the government kind of taking over the automobile industry, a president who fires the CEO of a major American corporation. These are the kind of things that come out of ATLAS SHRUGGED,” Mr. Brook commented.

Even HOLLYWOOD is said to be interested, which is only fitting, since AYN RAND was once a screenwriter. But developments have come in fits and starts. GODFATHER producer ALBERT S. RUDDY once wanted to make a film and talk of miniseries adaptations emerged in the 70S and 90S.

In 2006, ANGELINA JOLIE was said to have been signed to star as AYN RAND’S hero, rail magnate DAGNY TAGGART and names such as RUSSELL CROWE and BRAD PITT have also been floated. However, as of early 2009, the status of the film remains unknown.

ATLAS SHRUGGED concerns a group of corporate chieftains and individualists who go on strike in protest of government intervention in business. Among those trying to figure out what’s happening are DAGNY TAGGART and steel tycoon HANK REARDEN.

Eventually they meet JOHN GALT, an engineer who had been elevated to legendary status by “stopping the motor of the world” in encouraging other individualists to drop out and who delivers the novel’s showstopping 50 page speech — an expansive summary of Ms. Rand’s philosophy.

Upon the book’s release it divided critics and readers, some of whom praised its message of self sufficiency. More, however, disliked AYN RAND’S politics and atheism, not to mention her writing.

“Is it a novel? Is it a nightmare? Is it SUPERMAN – in the comic strip or the Nietzschean version?” TIME magazine asked in its review, adding that Ms. Rand’s “philosophy must be read to be disbelieved. She deserves credit at least for imagination; unfortunately, it is tied to ludicrous naivety.”

But Ms. Rand’s book — which followed 1943’s THE FOUNTAINHEAD, about a FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT like architect determined to follow his own path – was a best seller and has continued to be significant. In 1991, a LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/BOOK OF THE MONTH CLUB survey named it #2 among respondents’ most influential books, after the Bible.

Her philosophy of selfishness and her love of pure capitalism (she used to wear a dollar sign brooch) has earned her many followers, particularly on the right.

But her critics are equally fervent, questioning her belief in pure free markets.

“What I find so remarkable about it is, if capitalism can work on its own without any government regulation, then we wouldn’t be here,” said economist HEATHER BOUSHEY of the left leaning CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS.

THE RAND INSTITUTE’S YARON BROOK points out that, to Ms. Rand, selfishness did not mean disengagement from the world or sociopathy.

“Rational self interest, egotism, in AYN RAND’S perception is not thinking short term and satisfying just whims…and cheating and lying and stealing,” he remarked.

“It is about pursuing what’s truly in your rational, long term self interest, figuring out what’s good for you, without exploiting, taking advantage, without stealing from other people, without sacrificing from other people to yourself.”

“But also,” he added, “without sacrificing yourself to other people.”

It’s that debate over shared sacrifice that will likely continue to fuel Ms. Rand’s critics, as well as her admirers. At book stores, it will likely keep cash registers ringing, which could only have made the dollar sign wearing author very happy indeed.

PUBLISHING GIANT ROBERT GIROUX DIES

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Apropos of nothing in particular, that’s one of the reasons I adore KIM BASINGER.

We have exactly the same hair. GOD, she was so gorgeous in THE NATURAL and she really should have been nominated for that.

She was robbed, baby….

But back to the task at hand…

ROBERT GIROUX, a distinguished giant of 20th century publishing who guided and supported dozens of great writers – from T.S. ELIOT to BERNARD MALAMUD to SUSAN SONTAG – died in his sleep earlier this month.

He assisted in the creation of one of the most notable establishments in the history of publishing: FARRAR, STRAUS & GIROUX. He was 94.

Mr. Giroux was a New Jersey native who attended COLUMBIA along with HERMAN WOUK, JOHN BERRYMAN and THOMAS MERTON.

Known throughout the industry for his taste and discretion, he began as an editor at HARCOURT, BRACE & COMPANY in 1940.

Among the debut novels he worked on were BERNARD MALAMUD’S THE NATURAL, JACK KEROUAC’S THE TOWN & THE CITY and FLANNERY O’CONNOR’S WISE BLOOD. He also oversaw books by ROBERT LOWELL and HANNAH ARENDT.

His fabulous reputation preceded him to the point that when he left for FARRAR STRAUS in 1955, more than a dozen writers followed him there. Included were FLANNERY O’CONNOR, BERNARD MALAMUD and T.S. ELIOT (who was a close friend).

Mr. Giroux was made a full partner at FARRAR in 1964. His reserved demeanour was in high contrast to the company’s high spirited outgoing founder and president ROGER STRAUS. The two thrived together even as they endlessly complained about each other.

During Mr. Giroux’s 60 year career, some of the world’s most celebrated writers published works at FSG, including NOBEL PRIZE WINNERS ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, DEREK WALCOTT, NADINE GORDIMER and SEAMUS HEANEY.

Even after FSG sold controlling interest in 1994 to a German publisher, it retained the reputation as an upholder of old fashioned standards – more attuned to lasting quality than instantaneous profit. Sometimes it actually achieved both, with books like JONATHAN FRANZEN’S THE CORRECTIONS, JEFFREY EUGENIDES’ MIDDLESEX and MARILYNNE ROBINSON’S GILEAD.

Mr. Giroux was also an author. He wrote THE BOOK KNOWN AS Q: A CONSIDERATION OF SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS.

He also contributed to THE COMPLETE STORIES OF FLANNERY O’CONNOR and to anthologies of BERNARD MALAMUD, JOHN BERRYMAN and ELIZABETH BISHOP. A planned memoir was never completed.

In 1987, he received a lifetime achievement award from the NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE for his “distinguished contribution to the enhancement of American literary and critical standards”. In 2002, he got an honorary prize from the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF ARTS & LETTERS.