Writes Mike Holmes:

While this disturbing historical tidbit has been revealed before, a new book Writers Under Surveillance details this further. A large number well known 50s-60s era writers were diligently spied upon by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI based upon suspicions of ideological subversion.

Objectivist guru/ founder Ayn Rand was one of the few who volunteered to rat out fellow writers for their supposed Thought Crimes. She wrote Hoover personally to “name names.”

Though Rand’s individualist philosophy inspired many young thinkers towards the libertarian direction, she attacked libertarians per se as “hippie anarchists” after purging Murray Rothbard and others from her NYC Objectivist Circle in the early 60s. As a Russian exile her fervent anti-communism overruled her own logic.

The book also describes how Rand mistakenly believed Hoover had called himself an “Objectivist” in a TV interview. When Rand followed up in a subsequent letter to him, Hoover replied that ‘I have never said I was an “objectivist” – whatever that is’. Fortunately for all of us, I would say.