#who is john galt

[emperornorton47]

Who is Peter Parker?

[inkbird-art]

Dagny Taggart from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

[scripture-pictures]

[txttletale]

the people arguing on my post about voting are driving me insane because like. i don’t think voting is that important or that there are big difference between candidates in bourgeois political parties--but they do--and if you genuinely think that voting is the lifeblood of politics and elections are of critical importance and can change the world, then Surely holding the position that ‘it doesn’t matter who you vote for, what matters is that you vote!’ goes from being bloviating self-congratulatory garbage (which is what i think it is) to being unbelievably morally irresponsible. like when an anti-electoralist says ‘it doesn’t matter who you vote for’, you can disagree, but that’s a consistent worldview--if you’re heavily invested in the electoral process but still pull this ‘bipartisan compromise’ ‘heal the nation’ nancy pelosi routine you’re a freak and there’s no hope for you

[mitigatingchaos]

On Power

“Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind” Ayn Rand Who is John Galt?

[adamwatchesmovies]

Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt? (2014)

There’s something deeply satisfying about the failure that is Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt?. The first film had a budget of $20 million. It tanked at the box office. The sequel had a budget of $10 million and tanked as well. This third chapter was made with a budget of $5 million and earned less than $1 million in ticket sales. All three films feature a completely different cast despite being released only 1-2 years apart. If these movies were good, or even passable that would be depressing but these films are part nut-job parable, part cheezy romance. If there’s an entry in this series that’s so bad it’s good, it’s Part III: Who Is John Galt?, though whether it’s worth sitting through two films to have a couple of laughs at its expense is another story…

After pursuing Quentin Daniels to a remote part of the country, Dagny Taggart (played this time by Laura Regan) crashes into an invisible barrier. She’s discovered Galt’s Gulch, a hidden valley where the United States' brightest minds have retreated to avoid the government's oppressive over-regulation of companies and products. Dagny is told by John Galt (Kristoffer Polaha) that she and Henry Rearden (Rob Morrow) are the only people missing from this new hidden society of free entrepreneurs and inventors. Is Dagny ready to abandon Taggart Transcontinental and the rest of the outside world, or will she continue a fight everyone else thinks has already been lost?

At the end of Atlas Shrugged: Part II, I wondered what the point was. So much of the second movie reiterated what we had already been told. What unsuspecting plot points or revelations could possibly justify this book by Ayn Rand being turned into a trilogy? As this film begins, you’ll double-underscore that question because Rearden, who for the most part has been an important secondary character, is basically written out of the film to make room for John Galt, whom Dagny instantly falls for. It’s like a demented version of a fairytale conjured up by some loony objectivist. After falling into Galt’s magical kingdom, Dagny is confronted by the mystery man whose name is spoken like a curse in the outside world. What a surprise! He’s handsome and charismatic. Best of all, he believes that unfettered self-interest is good and altruism will ruin society. If that doesn’t make a lady want to take off her clothes, I don’t know what does.

The film tries so hard to make John Galt into a hero it becomes comical. At one point, he hijacks a broadcast by the President of the United States - oh, sorry. I mean the “Head of States” (Peter Mackenzie) - so he can deliver a message of rebellion and hope to the people. We're supposed to see him as some Bizarro world version of V. After heroically giving himself up, he is tortured by those goons in the White House in a way that resembles a crucifixion way too much to be a coincidence.

Who Is John Galt? is so hammy you might lose track of the film’s message, which is the same as before. The big enemy is the government. Yeah, there’s been some interference from Dagny's useless brother, the President of Taggart Industries (Greg Germann, whose character has a sub-plot that amounts to so little it must have been included solely because it was in the source material) but it’s those meanies up on Capital Hill that have been causing all the trouble. They insist on breaking up monopolies, taxing the rich, forcing wealthy states to share their money with poorer states, etc. Remember that last one. A turning point in this film that shows just how evil the Head of States is comes when we learn that a trainload of grains meant for a poor state is being diverted to another. “But the people will starve!” screams Dagny. “Why does she care?” you’ll ask. “Didn’t she previously tell us that altruism is for dummies and soft-headed care-bears?”

The biggest joke in this whole movie comes during the end credits when we see that the film’s budget included contributions from Kickstarter supporters. It’s so ironic I wonder how many of them sent money to director J. James Manera so they could metaphorically piss all over this film and on Ayn Rand in the process. If she believed in half of what this film exposits, she must’ve been one of the most uncompassionate, cold-blooded reptiles to ever disguise herself as a human being.

It’s easy to find things to say about a movie like Atlas Shrugged Part III: Where is John Galt?. My friends and I watched it together and our collective suffering will make us a more tightly-knit group. That doesn’t mean I recommend you watch it. The first two parts are so dull and infuriating that the “homework” needed for you to understand the irony of this cinematic blight just isn’t worth it. (On Blu-ray, April 7, 2023)

[tctmp]

Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt?: Directed by James Manera. With Kristoffer Polaha, Laura Regan, Peter Mackenzie, Greg Germann. In a post-apocalyptic America, the iron fist of the totalitarian government seeks to crush one mysterious man named John Galt, who has the power and influence to change everything..

[ruler-of-the-would-be]

Why did no one tell me Atlas Shrugged is a romance? It's a weird book, but the biggest surprise was the love triangle.

[atlas-plugged]

I haven’t read Atlas since 2005, so I’m stoked to passively ingest snarky commentary.

It always seemed to me that the people around me who were most in love with this book often particularly love the idea that other people should love them regardless of how they treat other people. Like, being a dick, or just not having very good social skills, shouldn’t tarnish the adulation due to Smart People TM, (my super cringe teenage self included) who should run the world.

I’m super curious if this matches your observations.

So I'll tell you about the two people who I most vividly remember loved Atlas Shrugged when I was working at the coffee shop and they saw me reading it.

One person was a young latina woman who had worked her way through college and law school and who had passed the bar a year before and was working overwhelming hours at a law firm where she was getting significant raises on a regular basis. The job was difficult, and she always seemed on the verge of burnout, but she was very firmly entrenched in the idea that hard work paid off and liked the book because it was about people who were brilliant and rich and worked hard anyway and they came out on top in the end.

The other person who loved it was a middle-aged man who worked taking bets at the racetrack and who was a literal, actual VOCAL member of the John Birch Society. He was notable for two habits: he never tipped, and while he never bought his own pack of cigarettes he would also never, ever allow you to *give* him cigarettes, so he would 'bum' smokes from me and pay me a quarter each (this was when a pack cost about five dollars, so that was just about what a cigarette cost). He liked the book because he thought the world was full of moochers (he's the only person I've ever spoken to who would regularly refer to people that way in conversation) and the book was a story where the moochers got what was coming to them for once.

These were VERY different people who took pretty different messages from the book for very different reasons.

I think the central fantasy of Atlas Shrugged is that it is full of characters who are loved and valued for the thing that they most value about themselves. It is a book that is not just about a meritocracy, it is about a Meritopia. It is about people who get the things they want because they are the best at what they do. This is CENTRAL to the story.

The reason I used the term "Matryoshka of Cuckoldry" to describe the relationships is because of this meritocratic point of view. Eddie loves Dagny but is not jealous of the fact that she wants Francisco because Francisco is a better man than Eddie. Francisco wants Dagny, but understands her passion for Hank because Hank is a good man who is currently part of her world in a way that Francisco can't be. Hank *sends her a letter* letting her know that he's okay with her leaving him for Galt because he meets Galt and understands why Dagny can't love Hank anymore once she has met the pinnacle of humanity. Then both of her exes help her rescue her current lover because he is a better man than them.

The Fountainhead has a much more literal cucking thing going on with Dominique marrying and fucking two men who she thinks are much worse than Roark, sullying herself with their lust until Roark chooses to stop sullying himself by operating in a world that doesn't value him the way that she does.

What is the same in both of these novels, and what I think you are pointing at in your ask, is that the horrible characters are loved for the things that they love about themselves, and all of their unloveable traits don't matter.

That is the fantasy that people are getting from Atlas Shrugged, and that's why you might find some real assholes out there "Looking for their Dagny/Galt" (a literal phrase I have seen on Libertarian dating sites!).

And you know what, I can be sympathetic to that.

I was raised to value intellect over everything else. Academic achievement, high test scores, acceptance to a good college, and being smarter and more knowledgeable than all my peers was what I was taught was more important than being kind, or being polite, or making friends, or taking care of my mental health.

That meant that I really, really, really wanted people to love me for how smart I was.

And, well. The thing about that is, I ended up loving and being loved by people who didn't care if I was cruel or selfish, and who didn't mind being cruel or selfish to me.

I'm still kind of an asshole. And since I started dating my spouse within three months of when I first read Atlas Shrugged, it's not a surprise that he doesn't care much if I'm nice to people and is, himself, kind of an asshole (though, notably, he is not an asshole with me and part of me getting better has been both of us learning to draw boundaries on how we are willing to be treated by one another).

But oh my god, I'm never an asshole like I am when I'm around my dad. I'm never as much of a snob as I am when he brings it out in me. I'm never as mean as I am when I'm talking to him. And I've never stopped hearing from my dad that I'm too smart to be doing the job that I'm doing, that I'm too smart to be going back to school for a different degree, that I should be getting a PhD and focusing on one field because that's what I'm best at and the rest of the world should recognize it. I know that's what my dad loves about me more than anything else he loves about me. He thinks I'm smarter than him, and he thinks that's awesome, and he thinks that everything I do that is not about harnessing raw intelligence into an academic career is a waste of my mind and time.

So there is a part of me that deeply identifies with these characters whose best trait is their efficiency, who never bother to be nice because it would slow them down in the process of being perfect. I desperately understand the fantasy of someone saying "you are the best in the world at this one specific thing and I find that so sexy that I don't care about your lack of work/life balance, offputting personality, and total lack of skills unrelated to your area of interest."

(Of note: another part of this fantasy in the novel is that skill in one area translates to skill in others. There's a philosopher who is also an incredible short order cook; there's a banker who is also a brilliant tobacco grower; there's a railroad executive who is also an expert maid because Ayn Rand is so fucking kinky she doesn't know what to do with herself)

That's just, you know, a shitty way to live and means you treat people like crap and sometimes that takes a little while to understand that and figure out how to be less of an asshole.

Also: part of the fantasy is that you actually ARE good enough at any one thing that that's what someone will love you for. Most of us aren't! And that's a good thing actually, because people should love you for more than one aspect of yourself!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: one of the most important things that I've ever come across for my mental health is this image:

[ETA: the image is a print by Nicole Manganelli of Radical Emprints and you can get one here.]

I saw it on Tumblr some time in 2013 or thereabouts and instantly recoiled from it. I was angry about it. It was *WRONG.* At that point, in my mind, ALL that you are were worth was your productivity. That was literally all that you had to offer to the world, and literally all that people could love you for.

That's the Atlas Shrugged mindset. That's what the people who are fans of the book are carrying around in their heads. That's why they think it doesn't matter if they're an asshole, so long as they're rich enough, or work hard enough, or are the best at enough things, or have enough to make up for the fact that they aren't anything outside of their productivity.

But the picture wasn't wrong, I was wrong.

Anyway, I've done a lot of therapy about it and that's the best answer I've come up with.

[sugolara]

𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐓𝐨 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝

Feat. Katsuki Bakugo x Shoto Todoroki x Izuku Midoriya x fem! reader

An ongoing series.

Synopsis: After a deadly virus leaks all over the world, every country is forced to close down its borders and airports to prevent anyone from coming in and out. Though, it's too late for some people. The dead have risen and are looking for revenge.

Cw: gore, quirkless! au, apocalypse! au, zombie! au, weapons, death, angst, lots and lots of blood, cannibalism, suicidal thoughts, updates thursday/sunday, slow burn, cross-posted on ao3, wattpad, qoutev

BEING HEAVILY EDITED

Inspired by, ''The Walking Dead''

playlist!

" Space Junk - Wang Chung " Wolf - First Aid Kit " Into The Black - Chromatics " My Life In Rewind - Eagulls " Hush - Trills " Bad Before Good - Dayone " Run Boy Run - Woodkid " You're So Cool - Jonathan Bree " So Bored - Gorgeous Bully " Operations - Duster " Blue Light - Mazzy Star " Civilian - Wye Oak " Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers " Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses " Skyfall - Adele " Struggling Man - Emily Kinney (original: Jimmy Cliff) " The Last Pale Light In The West - Ben Nichols " Up The Wolves - The Mountain Goats " Blackbird Song - Lee DeWyze " Be Gone Dull Cage - Kiev " Into Dust - Mazzy Star " Warm Shadow - Fink " Tomorrow Is a Long Time - Bob Dylan " Poison Tree - Grouper " Rhymes Of An Hour - Mazzy Star " You Are The Wilderness - Voxhaul Broadcast " Running - Delta Spirit " People, Turn around - Delta Spirit " The Lion's Roar - First Aid Kit " Pain - Boy Harsher " The Setup - Favored Nations " The Old Death - Ben Nichols " Revolution - Red Shahan " The Man Who Sold The World - Nirvana " Beautiful Mess - Balian " The Day The World Went Away - Nine Inch Nails " Mr. Splitfoot - Paris Motel " Empty Words - Bowery Electric " No Longer Making Time - Slowdive " Step Away from the Cliff - Blue-Eyed Son " Paradise - Silverberg " Take Care (To Comb Your Hair) - Ty Segall " Glad I Had a Friend - Galt MacDermot " Machine Gun - Portishead " Shadows of Planes - Duster " No Peace at All - Aldous Harding " Save Us from Ourselves - Digital Daggers " I'm No Heroine - Emily Wells " Salt in the Wound - Delta Spirit " It's All Right - Sam Cooke " To Build a Home - The Cinematic Orchestra " 6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps " Edge Of The World - Dayshell " Bye Bye Bye - School of Seven Bells " Arsonist Lullaby - Hozier " It's All Over - Johnny Cash " The Stars Just Blink For Us - Say Hi " Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division " Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Guns N' Roses " Runnin' Down a Dream - Tom Petty " Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller Band " You Are Not Alone - Mavis Staples " Welcome - Harmonia & Eno ‘76’ " Hope We Can Again - Nine Inch Nails " outside - Oneheart " sleepless - Odyzon " Alesund - Sun Kil Moon " Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd " Don Abandons Alice - John Murphy " Wicked Game - Chris Isaak " Rule of Rose OST - Playing Airship " 1908 - Repulsive " I Shall Cross This River - The Black Atlantic " Easy Way Out - Low Roar " Wherever You Are - Ulrich Schnauss " Waitin' Round to Die - Townes Van Zandt

table of contents:

Season 1: Episode 1: Begin Episode 2: Not alone Episode 3: Gone but not forgotten Episode 4: You belong in this world Episode 5: Because all life is precious Episode 6: Musutafu, we'll meet again Episode 7: Izuku: I'd always thought there be more time

Season 2: Episode 8: During these two weeks Episode 9: Diopside, like your eyes Episode 10: For the first time in a long time Episode 11: Almost complete Episode 12: Determined to survive, stay alive Episode 13: Fear Episode 14: Katsuki: You are going to beat this world

Season 3: Episode 15: Away with you Episode 16: Three months ago Episode 17: Slowly withering away Episode 18: Don't die, not yet Episode 19: How long before I’m alone Episode 20: Nothing else to lose Episode 21: Shoto: Everything you would be will be gone

Season 4: Episode 22: Trouble Episode 23: For however long that'll be Episode 24: Searching Episode 25: The fallen city Episode 26: Stay who you are Episode 27: All together Episode 28: F/n: With you beside me

Season 5: Episode 29: Here Episode 30: Cruel Episode 31: Too loud Episode 32: Back on road Episode 33: All is lost Episode 34: Safe in your arms Episode 35: And so it begins Episode 36: At stake Episode 37: Sorry or whatever Episode 38: Familiar eyes

Season 6: Episode 39: A relief Episode 40: Upcoming trouble Episode 41: Never to easy Episode 42: To good for death Episode 43: Old memories Episode 44: A stroke of luck Episode 45: Be aware Episode 46: Bait Episode 47: A thump in my heart Episode 48: Belong to me Episode 49: One step closer (Towards you)

Season 7: Episode 50: Sorston Episode 51: Tenderness Episode 52: Here to stay Episode 53: The start Episode 54: Crushed Episode 55: Reporting to duty Episode 56: Good morning and goodbye Episode 57: An end to sorrow, grief & regret Episode 58: On the move Episode 59: Confirmation Episode 60: The world was on fire and no one could save me but you

Season 8: Episode 61: Not who you were Episode 62: Just you and me Episode 63: The Plaza Episode 64: The other side Episode 65: To be ready Episode 66: You're here Episode 67: So long, my dear Episode 68: Discard me Episode 69: Secrets you'll soon share Episode 70: I wish you nothing but the best Episode 71: For as long as I live Episode 72: Goodness and kindness can't survive, at least not in the world I dreamed of

Season 9: Episode 73: I'll see you in a while Episode 74: So wait for me Episode 75: Hushed secrets

To be continued...

Book one: Welcome To The New World Book two: To The One You Left Behind

taglist: @mikeyswifie @k0z3me @sky-angel101 @stevenknightmarc @nahwajinswhore @mn-0p @a-helen113 @azrral @mary-jinx @chixkadee @flowers-4-you @im-the-groot

[jkrockin]

Wait what guy who hadn't read Atlas Shrugged?

I was pretty sure I'd told this story here, but a cursory search suggests that I have not. Okay let's gooooo

Many moons ago, I worked in an emergency services call centre. I worked nights- I could get regular shifts, it paid well, and I am a huge freak, just like everyone else who works nights in a call centre. It is a lifestyle that attracts freaks. Some of my coworkers weren't full-time creatures of the night, but students or whoever who picked up occasional nights for the extra money, and one of them was Libertarian Shithead, who we'll call LS for short.

LS was a twentysomething white dude who wore a lot of name brand surfwear and designer sunglasses. I assume his parents were rich. LS loved nothing better than recreational arguing. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at it; he had some of the most dogshit opinions I've ever encountered in the wild, and was terrible at defending them. He'd say some crap about how Gattaca-type eugenics is Fine, Actually, because if you let people make designer babies, the ~*Free Market will decide what traits are desirable! Racism and colourism and ableism and sexism and intersexism won't affect those choices at all! And I'd get mad, because I have principles to speak of, and we'd get into it, and WITHOUT FAIL, we'd get maybe halfway into an actual discussion about whatever horseshit garbage he was on tonight, and the second he thought he was losing, he'd say "oh, well. I'm an ~*Objectivist, so you can't really understand my perspective unless you've read Ayn Rand." Then he'd sigh, and change the subject.

At the time I had not read any Ayn Rand. Being fundamentally powered by spite, I withstood maybe three weeks of this shit before I pirated an epub of Atlas Shrugged, put it on my e-reader, and proceeded to slam through it at supersonic speed so I could finally get to finish an argument with this terrible boy.

Anon, I fucking hated Atlas Shrugged. The book is bad. It's way too long, every single character is an unbelievable douche, the prose sucks. Ayn Rand wants to fuck a train so so so badly, but the prose is so turgid I couldn't even get invested in how much she wants to fuck a train. And the core of the matter, the politics I was there to understand, are, y'know. Objectivist. Eye-bleedingly selfish and capitalistic, expressed in amazingly childish and blinkered terms. Even the bits where it seems like the shithead capitalist dudes want to fuck each other are too mired in the scunge of Rand's terrible views to be enjoyable.

But I read the fucking thing! I powered through it with only quite minimal complaining! I finished the book on the train to work, and when I saw that LS was on that night, I plonked myself in a seat by him, and metaphorically cracked my knuckles, ready to fuckin' party. In a perfect world, I would have been cool enough to have waited for the perfect mid-argument moment to drop, but I didn't. I think I lasted exactly until we were both off a call at the same time, and then leaned in as close as the desk dividers would let me, and said "So I finished Atlas Shrugged. I have some thoughts."

I cannot overstate how quickly it became obvious that LS had not read the book. For a hot second I thought maybe it had just been a while and the fine details had escaped him, but no; he didn't know who half the characters were, or key points of the plot, or even know any of the stuff in the John Galt speech, i.e. the big juggernaut of Here's How Objectivism Works near the end of the book about Objectivism that this fucking guy hypothetically based his Objectivist views on. It took me maybe five minutes, in between calls, to realise this, and another five for him to admit he hadn't actually read any Ayn Rand. He'd read her Wikipedia page.

ANYWAY I didn't speak to him for like a month after that, and I don't think either of us lost out there!

[scripture-pictures]

[4libertylover]

"I do not enter discussions with neighbors who think they can forbid me to think. I do not place my moral sanction upon a murderer's wish to kill me. When a man attempts to deal with me by force, I answer him-by force." - John Galt

[high-fructose-lesbianism]

Booty shorts that have Who is John Galt written across the ass.

[littlescaryinternetguy]

Imagine classic literature. Got that? Good.

Now imagine it with size scenarios.

Wow!

Sun Tzu's The Art of War. OK, whatever, but hear me out: he ends up saying fuckit and deploys giants! Well that's art we can all enjoy!

The Odyssey already has the guy in it, you know the one, the big eye guy with the sheep. OK but how about he's really hot and has man cleavage. Also the sheep are also hot guys.

The Fountainhead? Sure, the author is a piece of shit who can't write and is wrong about everything, but just imagine John Galt's three hundred page speech spoken by a wee little person in a very squeaky voice. Also he too is hot and the book isn't written by Ayn Rand. Now I got your attention!

Sam Shepard's coruscating dramatic explorations of manhood and identity can only be improved if they are about giant women. Fool for Love? You bet when May is eighty feet tall!

The Bible has the cosmic hairy thunderer God (who is hot) sitting on a throne surrounded by ninescore ranks of angels singing holyholyholy, but did you know that one of the angels, Sandalphon, is as tall as a thousand-day journey on foot? You could look it up! So we don't need to add anything to that. Let's just back out of that room quietly.

Anyhoo, all of literature can be improved by adding a size component, and also hot good looking people who want to kiss me. That is the end of my book report.

[scotianostra]

On May 2nd 1779 John Galt the Scottish novelist, was born in Greenock.

Galt was the son of a ship’s captain involved in trade to the West Indies. Sickly as a child, Galt was at first schooled at home, later attending grammar school at Irvine.

In 1789, the family moved to Greenock in Renfrewshire when Galt’s father became a ship-owner and in 1796 John began work as a clerk for a local firm. In 1803 and 1804 he found some published success as a poet when the Scots Magazine published part of his epic poem, ‘The Battle of Largs’. The poem was published in full in 1804, around the time its author moved to London in an attempt to become a businessman. In 1807 his article, ‘A Statistical Account of Upper Canada’, was published in The Philosophical Magazine, and in 1808 his main business partnership was declared bankrupt, though without Galt suffering liabilities.

In 1809 he studied law for a few months, entering Lincoln’s Inn, but then decided to travel around the Mediterranean where he met Lord Byron. In 1811, back in London, he published two volumes of his travels and a biography of Cardinal Wolsey, and became editor of the Political Review. In 1813 Galt married Elizabeth Tilloch and also published a sequel to his Mediterranean travels, Letters from the Levant. In 1814 he became editor of The New British Theatre and the following year gave up this position to become Secretary of the Royal Caledonian Asylum, a charity established by the Highland Society in London. In 1816, Galt published The Life and Studies of Benjamin West, a biography of the American painter who became President of the Royal Academy. In 1818 his tragedy, The Appeal, was staged in Edinburgh with a verse epilogue by Sir Walter Scott. Back in London in 1819, Galt began lobbying Parliament for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Union Canal Company, though this first attempt failed. He also turned his hand to writing school textbooks under various pseudonyms. The following year his parliamentary efforts were successful and he was given a substantial reward by the canal company.

In 1821 The Ayrshire Legatees was published in monthly parts in the famous Blackwood’s Magazine, and in the same year Galt was engaged by a group of businessmen from Upper Canada, attracted by his lobbying reputation, to assist them in obtaining compensation from the government for losses sustained in the War of 1812.

Galt was a prime mover in founding the Canada Company whose Secretary he became; in 1825, he was one of five government commissioners sent to Canada on a fact-finding mission. Later that same year, Galt was granted the freedom of Irvine. In 1826, he was appointed superintendent of the Canada Company. He travelled via New York to the areas around modern Ontario including Toronto. In 1827 Galt established the towns of Guelph and Goderich but in 1829 he was recalled to London, dismissed from the Canada Company in June, committed to King’s Bench Prison for debt in July, and discharged in November.

Galt’s methods were subsequently vindicated because the Canada Company, following the patterns he had established, made profits from the 1830s until it was wound up in the 1950s. He was a good community builder but he laboured with little help, he alienated the reactionary establishment of Upper Canada and he failed to impress on his directors that the profits would accrue in the medium to long term.

In 1830, he wrote The Life of Lord Byron, who was a good friend, he also briefly became editor of The Courier, a London evening newspaper. In 1831, Bogle Corbet was published and Galt played an instrumental role in forming the British American Land Company (to do in Lower Canada what the Canada Company was doing in Upper Canada) and appointed its Secretary.

In 1832 Galt suffered the first of a series of strokes and in 1833 he published his Autobiography the following year he retired to Greenock where he lived quietly but continued to write articles, short stories, novellas and poems.

John Galt published over 70 fullworks of literature as well as many more serialised and shorter stories in publications, he died on 11 April 1839. He was buried with his parents in the New Burying Ground in Greenock (now called the Old Burying Ground).

His legacies include the city of Galt in Ontario, Canada, now part of Cambridge, named in his honour, in his home town of Greenock he is commemorated by the John Galt memorial fountain on the Esplanade, by a plaque at the old cemetery where he is buried and sheltered housing built next to the cemetery in 1988, on the site of the old Royal Hospital, is named John Galt House. In Edinburgh's old town he has a slab in Makars Court near the Writers Museum and in Guelph, Canada a historical plaque commemorates his role with the Canada Company in populating the Huron Tract, calling it "the most important single attempt at settlement in Canadian history"