The Shadow Riders

Isabel Paterson is remembered as one of the three founding mothers of the libertarian movement, along with Ayn Rand and Rose Wilder Lane. In her own day, however, Paterson was feted primarily as a literary critic and a novelist. Her book reviews in the New York Herald Tribune — signed “I.M.P.” — commanded praise and fear for 25 years. Her nine novels were the legacy that literary friends and associates believed Paterson would pass onward. Instead, The God of the Machine became Paterson’s best-known work by far. This sweeping exploration of philosophy, history, and economics has cemented her image as a political figure. But unlike Rand, whom she mentored, Paterson did not write explicitly political novels. Moral and political themes surface, but they decidedly take second place to the development of character and the expression of style.

The Shadow Riders is Paterson’s first novel.