Isabel Paterson

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Isabel Paterson (birth name: Isabel Mary Bowler ; born January 22, 1886 in Manitoulin , Ontario , Canada ; † January 10, 1961 in Montclair , New Jersey ) was a Canadian-born American journalist , literary critic and writer , who mainly by her book The God of the Machine became famous.

Life

Isabel Paterson, who was a precursor to anarcho-capitalism , made her literary debut in 1913 with Magpie's Nest , which was followed by the novel The Shadow Riders that same year .

Between 1924 and 1949 she worked as a journalist and literary critic for the daily newspaper The New York Herald Tribune , but also continued to write novels such as:

  • The Singing Season: A Romance of Old Spain (1925)
  • The Fourth Queen (1926)
  • The Road of the Gods (1930)
  • Never Ask the End (1933)
  • The Golden Vanity (1934)
  • If It Prove Fair Weather (1940)

The greatest fame achieved Paterson, who acquired the US citizenship in 1928 , but with the non-fiction book The God of the Machine (1943), which is regarded as an important work of the philosophy of libertarianism and individualism . Best selling author and philosopher Ayn Rand wrote about this book :

“The book The God of the Machine did for capitalism what Das Kapital did for the Reds and the Bible for Christianity .” ('The God of the Machine does for capitalism what Das Kapital does for the Reds and what the Bible did for Christianity. ')

Background literature

  • Stephen D. Cox: The Woman and the Dynamo: Isabel Paterson and the Idea of ​​America , Transaction Publishers, 2004.

Web links and sources

personal data
SURNAME Paterson, Isabel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bowler, Isabel Mary (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer, journalist and literary critic
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Manitoulin , Ontario , Canada
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1961
Place of death Montclair , New Jersey