Roy A. Childs, Jr. (April 1, 1949 - May 1992) was an American libertarian essayist and critic.

Childs counted among his early influences Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Rose Wilder Lane, and Robert LeFevre.

In the 1960s Childs endorsed anarcho-capitalism, but several years later changed his position to minarchism.^[1] Childs edited the magazine Libertarian Review from 1977 until it folded in 1981. He was also a research fellow and later a policy analyst with the Cato Institute from 1982 to 1984. Perhaps Childs' most visible public role was as lead book reviewer for Laissez Faire Books, in which position he produced a number of memorable short essays. He held this position from 1984 until his death.

After suffering from poor health for several years, Childs died in 1992 at the age of 43. Following his death, pundit Tom G. Palmer wrote of him, "Roy Childs was one of the finer members of a generation of radical thinkers who worked successfully to revive the tradition of classical liberalism ... and who dared to launch a frontal challenge to the twentieth-century welfare state ... his writings exercised a powerful influence on a generation of young classical liberal thinkers."^[2]

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[edit] External links

• Biography
• An Open Letter to Ayn Rand, written by Roy Childs. Note, however, that Childs later rejected some of the opinions he expressed in this letter.