Isabel Paterson

I have become interested in Isabel Paterson. She was one of the three founders of the modern libertarian movement (along with Ayn Rand and Rose Wilder Lane). Unfortunately, she is somewhat forgotten today.

I came across Wendy McElroy's review of "The Woman and the Dynamo" by Stephen Cox. McElroy notes that Paterson was an important novelist yet unlike the her left wing contemporaries, is little remember today, even in libertarian (and broader conservative) circles.

So, why is Paterson so obscure today? McElroy thinks it is because in libertarian circles at least, novelists have not been as well regarded as professors. While I agree (despite the fact that Rand and Heinlein were both novelists), I think there is another important reason. Ayn Rand had her Objectivist movement. Rose Lane had the Freedom School and she acted as grandmother to the Libertarian Party. Hayek, Mises, and Rothbard had organizations devoted to their ideas. And of course Milton Freedom had the ear of presidents and a network of disciples on economics faculties across the world.

Paterson, on the other hand, was in many ways a lone wolf and most of her work was in a newspaper that ceased publishing 45 years ago. Each time she did try to collaborate, it ended badly. Russel Kirk, William F. Buckley and most famously Ayn Rand all were influenced by her, but she was unable to work with them. They all went onto greater fame, but Paterson remains sadly obscure. Hopefully, that will change (now more than ever).

EDITED Welcome fans of Wendy McElroy. I have learned my lessen and promise not to post typo ridden blog entries in the middle of the night. Look around, and make sure you read more about Isabel Paterson!

Isabel Paterson

I have become extremely interested of late in Isabel Paterson. Paterson is one of founders of modern American libertarianism. A prominent literary critic who used weekly book review column in the New York Herald Tribune "Books" supplement to take on the status quo, she was a contemporary of H.L. Mencken and Rose Wilder Lane, editor of humorist Will Cuppy, mentor to Ayn Rand and correspondent to Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley. She is unfortunately somewhat forgotten today. Unlike her contemporaries, she was not a joiner -- Rand had her Objectivist movement while Lane was active at the libertarian Freedom School. Paterson simply had her column. Hence, she did not leave behind a phalanx of disciples to popularize her work.

Besides being a critic she also was a writer herself. Her sole nonfiction book, "The God of the Machine" was in some ways the starting point for modern American libertarianism. Ayn Rand told Paterson that the book "does for capitalism what Das Kapital does for the Reds and what the Bible did for Christianity." Paterson also wrote historical novels where kings were the villains and merchants the heroes.

To Paterson, society was simply the transmitter of energy -- the energy of commerce and creativity. Many things, overburdening government, grasping nobles, a society based on status, central planning, Bolshevism, or fascism, were items that slowed down the transmission of energy. Paterson is of interest to me because she did not see liberty as being in opposition to faith. In fact, she felt quite the opposite -- that Christianity helped to set free the energies of Europe. While recognizing that Europe in the Middle Ages was a status bound society based on serfdom, she believed that Christian philosophy was one of the basis for freedom (Paterson was not a Christian herself, but is rather better considered a Deist).

Unfortunately, the only works of Paterson that seem to be in print are "The God of the Machine" and one of her later experimental novels. Her Tribune columns and her early novels are hard to find. In addition, there is an excellent biography of her, "The Woman and the Dynamo" by Steven Cox. Hopefully, a few of her earlier novels might come back into print.

Another quote I really like

"I am now a fundamentalist American; give me time and I will tell you why individualism, laissez faire and the slightly restrained anarchy of capitalism offer the best opportunities for the development of the human spirit. Also I will tell you why the relative freedom of human spirit is better -- and more productive, even in material ways -- than the communist, Fascist, or any other rigidity organized for material ends." -- Rose Wilder Lane.

Rose Wilder Lane was the daughter of the Laura Ingalls Wilder of "Little House" fame (and if you believe some people, the real author of the "Little House" books). Her belief in freedom was forged in her hardscrabble childhood, and reinforced by what she saw of the Soviet Union as a journalist, and by the rise of fascism.