Who _was_ John Gault, anyway?
Mr N R Alcock
John Gault is a character in the book. Most authors based their characters
on real people. So on whom did Ayn Rand base John Gault - in other words,
who _was_ John Gault?
I ask because I know a man who claims to be that very person, on whom
the character John Gault was based. I have no way of verifying this claim;
could anyone verify it for me?
Cheers,
Robert Alcock.
Alan E. Asper
>
>I ask because I know a man who claims to be that very person, on whom
>the character John Gault was based. I have no way of verifying this claim;
>could anyone verify it for me?
>
I am currently reading Barbara Branden's _The Passion of Ayn Rand_, a
biography. As far as I can tell, Rand created Gault out of her perfect-Man,
hero-worshipping ideal, not a single, living, breathing person. Contributing
to this ideal were a certain boyfriend (Leo) she had back in Russia,
certain characters from Victor Hugo, and, most of all, a character in a
children's story she read when she was a little girl. Rand said many times
that this character (I don't remember the name of the story, which was
published in a French children's magazine) was the original "Rand hero" that
made her want to write.
In other words, this friend of yours is bullshitting you. :-)
Happy holidays,
Alan
My opinions are not those of my employer.
TONY_D...@delphi.com
It's John GALT, not Gault.
Tony Donadio
HOL...@delphi.com
John Galt (1779-1839) was an author born in Irvine, Scotland. In 1826
he went to Canada and founded the town of Guelph; a nearby town was later
renamed Galt in his honor.
Though I doubt the Atlas Shrugged character was named after him.
Charles Hollingsworth
Tom Radcliffe
to be valid, to count; *reason*: hold good or true; *law*: be effective.''
I have no idea if this is the origin of the character's name, but it
seems rather plausible, doesn't it?
Chris Walker
this would show in the title of "The Fountainhead" if Rand's novels were
to ever be translated into Arabic.
My Al-Mawrid dictionary says there's a word for it, but I can't really
scribble it too well.
--
Chris Walker
cwa...@zycor.lgc.com
Brian K. Yoder
>Just for grins, note that "Ayn" means "fountain" in Arabic. I wonder how
>this would show in the title of "The Fountainhead" if Rand's novels were
>to ever be translated into Arabic.
>My Al-Mawrid dictionary says there's a word for it, but I can't really
>scribble it too well.
That is almost certaily a coinsidence. As far as I know Rand never learned
any arabic. I have heard two stories about he origin of her name (which was
an assumed name she invented upon arrival in the United States to prevent
her from being returned to the USSR, and to prevent reprisals against her
family when her writings became public). One story is that "Ayn" is the
name of a Finnish writer she liked. Another is that her father used to
use the yiddish word "Ayan" as a nickname for her (which means "bright eyes").
There seems to be a consensus on the origin of the "Rand" part, which is that
when she will typing some identification forms or other she had to invent a
last name and since she was typing on a Remington-Rand typewriter she had
a "suggestion" staring her in the face. The other factor in the works was
that her origial name in Russia was "Alissa Rosenbaum" and she wanted to
retain the initials.
--Brian
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Betsy Speicher
> I have heard two stories about he origin of her name ...
> One story is that "Ayn" is the name of a Finnish writer she liked.
> Another is that her father used to use the yiddish word "Ayan" as a
> nickname for her (which means "bright eyes").
subject of names -- her own and the names of her characters. I told her
that my own father, a Russian Jewish immigrant, used to call me "Ayin"
and he said it meant "bright eyes" in Yiddish. I asked her if she had
ever been called that, and she acknowledged that it was also her
father's pet name for her.
She said that she named the characters in her book based on whether the
names "sounded right" based on similar associated words. She gave the
example of Ellsworth Toohey and cited Lois Cook's rhyming it with
"phooey" and "gooey" in _The_Fountainhead_. "Galt" sounded like
"gaunt," "tall," "gold," "geldt" (money), etc.
Thinking about the name "Francisco D'Anconia," I asked her if she had
ever named her heros after real people. "No," she said, "I pick a name
because it sounds good." "How to you say 'Frank O'Connor' in Spanish?"
I asked skeptically. She grinned a huge little-girl grin, winked at me,
and replied, "That DOES sound good, doesn't it?"
Betsy Speicher
Betsy_S...@mcimail.com
Chris Walker
might be a connection through Russia via the Greek words shared by Russian
and Arabic, I see nothing in my Greek dictionaries which verifies this.
Eftixismenos kainourios etos!!
--
Chris Walker
cwa...@zycor.lgc.com
